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The Doings of 

Raffles Haw- 




CONAN DOYLE 

1 1 


A UTHOR OF 

''MICA// CLARKE," "THE WHITE COMPANY" ETC. 



NEW YORK 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

150 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE 


Tzlj 


Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. 


All Rights Reserved. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


CHAPTEB I 

A DOUBLE ENIGMA. 

“ I’m afraid that he won’t come,” said Laura McIntyre, 
in a discontented voice. 

“Why not?” 

“ Oh, look at the weather ! It is something too 
awful.” As she spoke a whirl of snow heat with a muf- 
fled patter against the cosey red - c urtained window, 
while a long blast of wind shrieked and whistled 
through the branches of the great white-limbed elm 
which skirted the garden. 

Kobert McIntyre rose from the sketch upon which he 
had been working, and taking one of the lamps in his 
hand he peered out into the darkness. The long skel- 
eton limbs of the bare trees tossed and quivered dimly 
amid the whirling drift. His sister sat by the fire, her 
fancy-work in her lap, and looked up at her brother’s 
profile which showed against the brilliant light. It was 
a handsome face, young and fair and clear-cut, with 
wavy brown hair combed backward and rippling down 
into the outward curve at the ends which one associates 
with the artistic temperament. There was refinement 
too in his slightly puckered eyes, his dainty gold- rimmed 
pince-nez glasses, and in the black velveteen coat which 


4 THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 

caught the light so richly upon its shoulder. In his 
mouth only there was something, a suspicion of coarse- 
ness, a j)ossibility of weakness, which iu the eyes of 
some, and of his sister among them, marred the grace 
and beauty of his features. Yet, as he w^as wont him- 
self to say, when one thinks that each poor mortal is heir 
to a legacy of every evil trait or bodily taint of so vast a 
line of ancestors, lucky indeed is the man who does 
not find that nature has scored up some long-owing 
family debt upon his features. 

And indeed in this case the remorseless creditor had 
gone so far as to exact a claim from the lady also, 
though in her' case the extreme beauty of the upper part 
of the face drew the eye away from any weakness which 
might be found in the lower. She was darker than 
her brother, so dark that her heavily-coiled hair 
seemed to be black until the light shone slantwise 
across it. The delicate half-petulant features, the finely 
traced brows, and the thoughtful humorous eyes were 
all perfect in their way, and yet the combination left 
something to be desired. There was a vague sense of a 
flaw somewhere in feature or in expression, which re- 
solved itself, when analj’zed, in a slight out-turning and 
droop of the lower lip, small indeed, and yet pronounced 
enough to turn what would have been a beautiful face 
into a merely pretty one. Very despondent and some- 
what cross she looked as she leaned back in the arm- 
chair, a tangle of bright- colored silks and of drab hol- 
land upon her lap, her hands clasped behind her head, 
with her snowy forearms and little pink elbows pro- 
jecting on either side. 

“I know he won’t come,” she repeated. 

‘‘Nonsense, Laura ! Of course he’ll come. A sailor 
and afraid of the weather ! ” 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


5 


‘‘Ha ! ” She raised her finger and a smile of triumph 
played over her face, only to die a\Yay again into a blank 
look of disappointment. “ It is only papa,” she mur- 
mured. 

A shuffling step was heard in the hall, and a little 
peaky man, with his slippers very much down at the 
heel, came shambling into the room. Mr. McIntyre, 
senior, was pale and furtive-looking, with a thin strag- 
gling red beard shot with gray, and a sunken downcast 
face. Ill -fortune and ill-health had both left their* 
marks upon him. Ten years before he had been one 
of the largest and richest gunmakers in Birmingham, 
but a long run of commercial bad luck had sapped his 
great fortune and had finally driven him into the 
bankruptcy court. The death of his wife on the very 
day of the declaration of his insolvency had filled his 
cup of sorrow, and he had gone about since with a 
stunned half-dazed expression upon his weak pallid face 
wfflich spoke of a mind unhinged. So complete had 
been his downfall that the family would have been re- 
duced to absolute poverty were it not for a small legacy 
of two hundred a year which both the children had 
received from one of their uncles upon the mother’s 
side, who had amassed a fortune in Australia. By com- 
bining their incomes, and by taking a house in the quiet 
country district of Tamfield, some fourteen miles from 
the great Midland City, they were still able to live with 
some approach to comfort. The change, however, was 
a bitter one to all ; to Kobert, who had to forego the 
luxuries dear to his artistic temperament, and to think 
of turning wfflat had been merely an overruling hobby 
into a means of earning a living ; and even more to 
Laura, who winced before the pity of her old friends, 
and found the lanes and fields of Tamfield intolerably 


6 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


dull after the life and bustle of Edgbaston. Their dis- 
comfort was aggravated by the conduct of their father, 
whose life now was one long wail over his misfortunes, 
and who alternately sought comfort in the prayer-book 
and in the decanter for the ills which had befallen him. 

To Laura, however, Tamfield presented one attrac- 
tion which was now about to be taken from her. Their 
choice of the little country hamlet as their residence 
had been determined by the fact pf their old friend, the 
Eeverend John Spurling, having been nominated as the 
vicar. Hector Spurling, the elder son, two months 
Laura’s senior, liad been engaged to her for some years, 
and was indeed upon the point of marrying her when 
the sudden financial crash had disarranged their plans. 
A sub-lieutenant in the navy, he was home on leave at 
present, and hardly an evening passed without his mak- 
ing his way from the vicarage to Elmdene, where the 
McIntyres resided. To-day, however, a note had reached 
them to the effect that he had been suddenly ordered on 
duty and that he must rejoin his ship at Portsmouth by 
the next evening. He would look in, were it but for 
half an hour, to bid them adieu. 

“ Why, where’s Hector ? ” asked Mr. McIntyre, blink- 
ing round from side to side. 

“He’s not come, father. How could you expect him 
to come on such a night as this ! Why, there must be 
two feet of snow in the Glebe field.” 

“Not come, eh?” croaked the old man, throwing 
himself down upon the sofa. “ Well, well, it only wants 
him and his father to throw us over and the thing will 
be complete.” 

“How can you even hint at such a thing, father?” 
cried Laura, indignantly. “They have been as true 
as steel. What would they think if they heard you ! ” 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


7 


“I think, Robert,” he said, disregarding his daugh- 
ter’s protest, “that I will have a drop, just the very 
smallest possible drop, of brandj^ A mere thimbleful 
will do, but I rather think I have caught cold during 
the snowstorm to-day.” 

Robert went on sketching stolidly in his folding-book, 
but Laura looked up from her work. “I'm afraid that 
there is nothing in the house, father,” she said. 

•“ Laura ! Laura ! ” He shook his head as one more 
in sorrow than in anger. “ You are no longer a girl, 
Laura. You are a woman, the manager of a household, 
Laura. We trust in you. We look entirely toward you. 
And yet you leave your poor brother Robert without 
any brandy, to say nothing of me, your father. Good 
heavens, Laura, what would your mother have said ! 
Think of accidents, think of sudden illness, think of 
apoplectic fits, Laura. It is a very grave res — a very 
grave respons — a very great risk that you run.” 

“I hardly touch the stuff,” said Robert, curtl}’’. 
“Laura need not provide any for me.” 

“As a medicine it is invaluable, Robert. To be used, 
you understand, and not to be abused. That’s the whole 
secret of it. But I’ll step down to the Three Pigeons 
for half an hour.” 

“ My dear father,” cried the young man, “ you surely 
are not going out upon such a night ! If you must 
have brandy, could I not send Sarah for some ? Please 
let me send Sarah. Or I would go myself, or ” 

Pip ! came a little paper pellet from his sister’s 
chair onto the sketch book in front of him. He un- 
rolled it and held it to the light. “ For heaven’s sake, 
let him go I ” was scrawled across it. 

Well, in any case, wrap yourself up warm,” he con- 
tinued, laying bare his sudden change of front with a 


8 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 

masculine clumsiness wliich horrified his sister. “ Per- 
haps it is not so cold as it looks. You can’t lose your 
way, that is one blessing. And it is not more than a 
hundred yards.” 

With many mumbles and grumbles at his daughter’s 
want of foresight, old McIntyre struggled into his 
great-coat and wrapped his scarf round his long thin 
throat. A sharp gust of cold wind made the lamps 
flicker as he threw open the hall door. His two chil- 
dren listened to the dull fall of his footsteps as he 
slowly picked out the winding garden path. 

“ He gets worse — he becomes intolerable,” said Eob- 
ert, at last. “We should not have let him out. He 
may make a public exhibition of himself.” 

“But it’s Hector’s last night,” pleaded Laura. “It 
would be dreadful if they met, and he noticed anything. 
That was why I wished him to go.” 

“ Then you were only just in time,” remarked her 
brother, “ for I hear the gate go, and — yes, you see.” 

As he spoke a cheery hail came from the outside, with 
a sharp rat-tat at the Avindow. Eobert stepped out and 
threw open the door to admit a tall young man Avhose 
black frieze jacket was all mottled and glittering with 
snow-crystals. Laughing loudly, he shook himself like 
a Newfoundland dog, and kicked the snow from his 
boots before entering the little lamp-lit room. 

Hector Spurling’s profession was written in every line 
of his face. The clean-shaven lip and chin, the little 
fringe of side whisker, the straight decisive mouth, and 
the hard weather-tanned cheeks all spoke of the Eoyal 
Navy. Fifty such faces may be seen any night of llie 
year round the mess-table of the Eoyal Naval College in 
Portsmouth Dockyard — faces which bear a closer resem- 
blance to each other than brother does commonlj^ to 


TIIE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


9 


brother. They are all cast in a common mould, the 
products of a system which teaches early self-reliance, 
hardihood, and manliness— a fine type upon the whole, 
less refined and less intellectual perhaps than their broth- 
ers of the land, but full of truth, and energy, and hero- 
ism. In figure he was straight, tall, and well knit, with 
keen gray eyes, and the sharp prompt manner of a man 
who has been accustomed both to command and to 
obey. 

“ You had my note ? ” he said, as he entered the room. 
“I have to go again, Laura. Isn’t it beastly? Old 
Smithers is short-handed and wants me back at once.” 
He sat down by the girl, and put his brown hand across 
her white one. “It won’t be a very large order this 
time,” he continued. “It’s the flying squadron business 
— Madeira, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and home. I shouldn’t 
wonder if we were back in March.” 

“ It seems only the other day that j^ou landed,” she an- 
swered. 

“ Poor little girl ! But it won’t be long. Mind you 
take good care of her, Bober t, when I am gone. And 
when I come again, Laura, it will be the last time, mind ! 
Hang the money ! There are plenty who manage on 
less. We need not have a house. Why should we ? You 
can get very nice rooms in Southsea at two pounds a 
week. McDougal, our paymaster, has just married, and 
he only gives thirty shillings. You would not be afraid, 
Laura ? ” 

“ No, indeed.” 

“ The dear old governor is so awfully cautious. Wait, 
wait, wait — that’s always his ciy. I tell him that he 
ought to have been in the Government Heavy Ordnance 
Department. But I’ll speak to him to-night. I’ll talk 
him round. See if I don’t ! And you must speak to your 


10 


THE DOimS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


own governor. Robert here will back you up. And here 
are the ports and the dates that we are due at each. 
Mind that 3^011 have a letter waiting for me at every 
one.’" He took a slip of paper from the side pocket of 
his coat, but instead of handing it to the 3'oung lady he 
remained staring at it with the utmost astonishment 
upon his face. 

“ Well, I never ! ” he exclaimed. “ Look here, Robert, 
what do 3^ou call this ? ” 

“ Hold it to the light ! AVh}^, it’s a fifty-pound Bank 
of England note. Nothing remarkable about it that I 
can see.” 

“On the contrary, it’s the queerest thing that ever 
happened to me. I can’t make head or tail of it.” 

“ Come then. Hector,” cried Miss McIntyre, with a 
challenge in her e^^es. “ Something veiy queer hap- 
pened to me also to-day. I’ll bet a pair of gloves that 
my adventure was more out of the common than j^ours, 
though I have nothing so nice to show at the end of it.” 

“Come, I’ll take that, and Robert here shall be the 
judge.” 

“ State your cases.” The 3"oung artist shut up his 
sketch-book and rested his head upon his hands with a 
face of mock solemnity. “ Ladies first ! Go along, 
Laura, though I think I know something of your advent- 
ure already.” 

“It was this morning. Hector,” she said. “Oh, by 
the wa}", the stoiy will make you wild. I had forgotten 
that. However, you mustn’t mind, because really the 
poor fellow w'as perfectly mad.” 

“ What on earth was it ? ” asked the 3'oung officer, his 
eyes travelling from the bank-note to his fiancee. 

“ Oh, it was harmless enough, and yet you will confess 
that it was very queer. I had gone out for a walk, but 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


11 


as the snow began to fall I took shelter under the shed 
which the workmen have built at the near end of the 
great new house. The men have gone, you know, and 
the owner is supposed to be coming to-morrow, but the 
shed is still standing. I was sitting there upon a pack- 
ing-case when a man came down the road and stopped 
under the same shelter. He was a quiet, pale-faced man, 
very tall and thin, not much more than thirty I should 
think, poorly dressed, but with the look and bearing of 
a gentleman. He asked me one or two questions about 
the village and the people, which, of course, I answered, 
until at last we found ourselves chatting away in the 
pleasantest and easiest fashion over all sorts of things. 
The time passed so quickly that I forgot all about the 
snow until he drew my attention to its having stopped 
for the moment. Then, just as .1 was turning to go, 
what in the world do you suppose that he did ? He took 
a step toward me, looked in a sad, pensive way into my 
face, and said : ‘ I w^onder whether you could care for 
me if I were without a penny.’ Wasn’t it strange ? I 
was so frightened that I whisked out of the shed and 
was off down the road before he could add another 
word. But really. Hector, you need not look so black, 
for when I look back at it I can quite see from his tone 
and manner that he meant no harm. He was thinking 
aloud without the least intention of being offensive. I 
am convinced that the poor fellow was mad.” 

“ Hum ! There was some method in his madness, it 
seems to me,” remarked her brother. 

“ There would have been some method in my kicking,” 
said the lieutenant, savagely. “I never heard of a more 
outrageous thing in my life.” 

“Now I said that you would be wild.” She laid her 
white hand upon the sleeve of his rough frieze jacket. 


12 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


“It was nothing. I shall never see the poor fellow again. 
He was evidently a stranger to this part of the coun- 
tiy. But tliat was my little adventure. Now let us 
have yours.” 

The young man crackled the bank-note between his 
finger and thumb while he passed his other hand over 
his hair with the action of a man who strives to collect 
himself. 

“It is some ridiculous mistake,” he said ; “I must try 
and set it right. Yet I don’t know how to set about it 
either. I was going down to the village from the vicar- 
age just after dusk when I found a fellow in a trap who 
had got himself into broken water. One wheel had sunk 
into the edge of the ditch, which had been hidden by 
the snow, and the whole thing was high and dry, with 
a list to starboard enough to slide him out of his seat. 
I lent a hand, of course, and soon had the wheel in the 
road again. It was quite dark, and I fancy that the fel- 
low thought that I was a bumpkin, for we did not ex- 
change five words. As he drove off he shoved this into 
my hand. It is the merest chance that I did not chuck it 
away, for, feeling that it was a crumpled piece of paper, 
I imagined that it must be a tradesman’s advertise- 
ment or something of the kind. However, as luck 
would have it, I put it in my pocket, and there I found 
it when I looked for the dates of our cruise. Now you 
know as much of the matter as I do.” 

Brother and sister stared at the black and white crin- 
kled note, with astonishment upon their faces. 

“Why, your unknown traveller must have been 
Monte Christo, or Kothschild at the least,” said Bob- 
ert. “ I am bound to say, Laura, that I think that you 
have lost your bet.” 

“ Oh, I am quite content to lose it. I never heard of 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES RAW. 


13 


sucli a piece of luck. Wliat a perfectly delightful man 
this must be to know.” 

“ But I can’t take his money,” said Hector Spurling, 
looking somewhat ruefully at the note. “ A little prize- 
money is all very well in its way, but a Johnny must 
draw the line somewhere. Besides, it must have been a 
mistake. And yet he meant to give me something big, 
for he could not mistake a note for a coin. I suppose I 
must advertise for the fellow.” 

“It seems a pity too,” remarked Eobert. “I must say 
that I don’t quite see it in the same light that you do.” 

“ Indeed I think that you are very Quixotic, Hector,” 
said Laura McIntyre. “ Why should you not accept it 
in the spirit in which it was meant. You did this stran- 
ger a service — perhaps a greater service than you know 
of — and he meant this as a little memento of the occa- 
sion. I do not see that there is any possible reason 
against your keeping it.” 

“ Oh, come !” said the young sailor, with an embar-- 
rassed laugh. “ It is not quite the thing — not the sort 
of story one would care to tell at mess.” 

“ In any case, you are off to-morrow morning,” ob- 
served Eobert. “You have no time to make inquiries 
about the mysterious Croesus. You must really make 
the best of it.” 

“Well, look here, Laura, you put it in your work- 
basket,” cried Hector Spurling. “You shall be my 
banker. And if the rightful owner turns up then I can 
refer him to you. If not, I suppose we must look on it 
as a kind of salvage money, though I am bound to say I 
don’t feel entirely comfortable about it.” He rose to 
his feet, and threw the note down into the brown basket 
of colored wools that stood beside her. “ Now, Laura, 
I must up anchor, for I promised the governor to be 


14 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


back by nine. It won’t be long this time, dear, and it 
shall be the last. Good-by, Eobert ! Good luck ! ” 

“ Good-by, Hector ! Bon voyage ! ” Tlie young artist 
remained by the table, while his sister followed her lover 
to the door. In the** dim light of the hall he could see 
their figures and overhear their words. 

“Next time, little girl.” 

“Next time be it, Hector.” 

“ And nothing can part us ? ” 

“Nothing.” 

“ In this whole world ? ” 

“ Nothing.” 

Eobert discreetly closed the door. A moment later a 
thud from without, and the quick footsteps crunching 
on the snow told him that their visitor had departed. 


CHAPTER n. 


THE TENANT OF THE NEW HALL. 

The snow had ceased to fall, but for a week a hard 
frost had held the country-side in its iron grip. The 
roads rang under the horses’ hoofs, and every wayside 
ditch and runlet was a sheet of ice. Over the long un- 
dulating landscape the red - brick houses peeped out 
warmly against spotless background, and the lines of 
gray smoke streamed straight up into the Avindless air. 
The sky was of the lightest pale blue, and the morn- 
ing sun, shining through the distant fog -wreaths of 
Birmingham, struck a subdued glow from the broad- 
spread snow-fields which might have gladdened the eyes 
of an artist. • 

It did gladden the heart of one who viewed it that 
morning from the summit of the gently- curving Tarn- 
field Hill. Robert McIntyre stood with his elboAvs upon 
a gate-rail, his Tam-o’-Shanter hat over his eyes, and a 
short briar-root i3ipe in his mouth, looking sloAvly 
about him Avith the absorbed air of one Avho breathes 
his full of nature. Beneath him to the north lay the 
village of Tamfield, red walls, gray roofs, and a scattered 
bristle of dark trees, with his OAvn little Elmdene nest- 
ling back from the broad Avhite Avindiiig Birmingham 
road. At the other side, as he slowly faced round, lay a 
vast stone building, white and clear-cut, fresh from the 
builder’s hands. A great tower shot up from one corner 
of it, and a hundred windows tAvinkled ruddily in the 


16 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


light of the mornir]g sun. A little distance from it stood a 
second small square low-lying structure, with a tall chim- 
ney rising from the midst of it, rolling out a long plume 
of smoke into the frosty air. The whole vast structure 
stood within its own grounds enclosed by a stately park 
wall and surrounded by what would in time be an ex- 
tensive plantation of fir-trees. By the lodge-gates a vast 
pile of debris, with lines of sheds for workmen, and 
huge heaps of planks from scaffoldings, all proclaimed 
that the work had only just been brought to an end. 

Kobert McIntyre looked down with curious eyes at 
the broad-spread building. It had long been a mystery 
and a subject of gossip for the whole country-side. 
Hardly a year had elapsed since the rumor had first 
gone about that a millionaire had bought a tract of 
land, and that it was his intention to build a countiy- 
seat upon it. Since then the work had been pushed on 
night and daj', until now it was finished to the last detail 
in a shorter time than it takes to build many a six- 
roomed cottage. Every morning two long special trains 
had arrived from Birmingham, carrying down a great 
army of laborers, who were relieved in the evening by a 
fresh gang, who carried on their task under the rays of 
twelve enormous electric lights. The number of work- 
men appeared to be only limited by the space into which 
they could be fitted. Great lines of wagons conveyed 
the white Portland stone from the depot by the station. 
Hundreds of busy toilers handed it over, shaped and 
squared, to the actual masons, who swung it up with 
steam cranes onto the growing walls, where it was in- 
stantly fitted and mortared by their companions. Day 
by day the house shot higher, while pillar and cornice 
and carving seemed to bud out from it as if by magic. 
Nor was the work confined to the main building. A 


THE DOimS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


17 


large separate structure sprang up at the same time, 
aud there came gangs of pale-faced men from London 
with much extraordinary machinery, vast cylinders, 
wheels, and wires, which they fitted up in this outlying- 
building. The great chimney which rose from the cen- 
tre of it, combined with these strange furnishings, 
seemed to mean that it was reserved as a factory or 
place of business, for it was rumored that this rich 
man’s hobby was the same as a poor man’s necessity, 
and that he was fond of working with his own hands 
amid chemicals and furnaces. Scarce, too, was the sec- 
ond story begun ere the wood-workers and plumbers 
and furnishers w^ere busy beneath, carrying out a thou- 
sand strange and costly schemes for the greater comfort 
and convenience of the owner. Singular stories were 
told all round the country, and even in Birmingham it- 
self, of the extraordinary luxury, and the absolute disre- 
gard for money, which marked all these arrangements. 
No sura appeared to be too great to spend upon the 
smallest detail which might do away with or lessen any 
of the petty inconveniences of life. Wagons and wagons 
of the richest furniture had passed through the village 
between lines of staring villagers. Costly skins, glossy 
carpets, rich rugs, ivory and ebony, and metal, every 
glimpse into these storehouses of treasure, had given 
rise to some new legend. And finally, when all had 
been arranged, there had come a staff of forty servants 
w^ho heralded the approach of the owner, Mr. Baffles 
Haw, himself. 

It was no wonder, then, that it was with considerable 
curiosity that Kobert McIntyre looked down at the 
great house, and marked the smoking chimneys, the 
curtained windows, and the other signs which showed 
that its tenant had arrived. A vast area of green-houses 
3 


18 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


gleamed like a lake on the further side, and beyond 
were the long lines of stables and out-houses. Fifty 
horses had passed through Tamfield the week before, so 
that large as were the preparations, they were not more 
than would be needed. Who and what could this man ^ 
be, who spent his money with so lavish a hand ? His 
name was unknown. Birmingham was as ignorant as 
Tamfield as to his origin, or the sources of his w’ealth. 
Robert McIntyre brooded languidly over the problem 
as he leaned against the gate, jDuffing his blue clouds of 
bird’s-eye into the crisp still air. 

Suddenly his eye caught a dark figure emerging 
from the avenue gates and striding up the winding 
road. A few minutes brought him near enough to' 
show a familiar face looking over the stiff collar and 
from under the soft black hat of an English clergy- 
man. 

“ Good-morning, Mr. Spurling.” 

“ Ah, good-morning, Robert. How are you ? Are 
you coming my way ? How slippy the roads are.” His 
round kindly face was beaming with good-nature, and 
he took little jumps as he walked, like a man who can 
hardly contain himself for pleasure. 

“ Have you heard from Hector ? ” 

Oh, yes. He w^ent off all right last Wednesday 
from Spithead, and he will write from Madeira. But 
you generally have later news at Ehndene than I have.” 

“I don’t know whether Laura has heard. Have you 
been up to see this new-comer ? ” 

“ Yes, I have just left him.” 

“ Is he a married man — this Mr. Raffles Haw ? ” 

‘‘ No, he is a bachelor. He does not seem to have 
any relations either, as far as I could learn. He lives 
alone, amid his huge staff of servants. It is a most re- 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


19 


markable establishment. It made me think of the ‘ Ara- 
bian Nights.’ ” 

“ And the man ? What is he like ? ” 

“ He is an angel — a positive angel. I never heard or 
read of such kindness in my life. He has made me a 
happy man.” . The clergyman’s eyes sparkled with emo- 
tion, and he blew his nose loudly in his big red hand- 
kerchief. 

Eobert McIntyre looked at him in surprise. “lam 
delighted to hear it,” he said. “ May I ask what he has 
done?” 

“ I went up to liim by appointment this morning. I 
had written, asking him if I might call. I spoke to 
him of the parish and its needs, of my long struggle 
to restore the south side of the church, and of our ef- 
forts to help my poor parishioners during this hard 
W'eather. While I spoke he said not a word, but sat 
with a vacant face as though he were not listening to 
me. When I had finished, he took up his pen. ‘ How 
much will it take to do the church?’ he asked. ‘A 
thousand pounds,’ I answered, ‘ but we have already 
raised three hundred among ourselves. The Squire has 
very handsomely given fifty pounds.’ ” 

“‘Well,’ said he, ‘ hoW about the poor folk? How 
many families are there ? ’ ‘ About three hundred,’ I 

answered. ‘ And coals, I believe, are at about a pound 
a ton,’ said he. ‘Three tons ought to see them through 
the rest of the winter. Then you can get a very fair 
pair of blankets for two pounds. That would make five 
pounds per family, and seven hundred for the church.’ 
He dipped his pen in the ink, and as I am a living man, 
Eobert, he wTote me a check then and there for two 
thousand two hundred pounds. I don’t know what I 
said. I felt like a fool. I could not stammer out ^yords 


20 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


with which to thank him. ’ All my troubles have been 
taken from my shoulders in an instant, and indeed, 
Eobert, I can hardly realize it.” 

“ He must be a most charitable man.” 

^‘Extraordinarily so. And so unpretending. One 
would think that it was I who was doing the favor, and 
he who was the beggar. I thought of that passage 
about making the heart of the widow sing for joy. He 
made my heart sing for ' joy, I can tell j’ou. Are you 
coming up to the Vicarage ? ” 

“No, thank you, Mr. Spurling. I must go home and 
get to work on my new picture. It’s a five-foot can- 
vas — ‘The Landing of the Eomans in Kent.’ I must 
have another try for the Academy. Good-morning.” 
He raised his hat and continued down the road, while 
the vicar turned off into the path which led to his home. 

Eobert McIntjTe had converted a large bare room in 
the upper story of Elmdene into a studio, and thither he 
retreated after lunch. It 'svas as well that he should have 
some little den his own, for his father would talk of 
little save his and accounts, while Laura had 

become somewhat peevish and querulous since the one 
tie which held her to Tamfield had been removed. The 
chamber was a bare and bleak one, unpapered and un- 
carpeted, but a good fire sparkled in the grate, and two 
large windows gave him the needful light. His easel 
stood in the centre with the great canvas balanced across 
it, while against the walls there leaned his two last at- 
tempts, “ The Murder of Thomas of Canterbury ” and 
“The Signing of Magna Charta.” Eobert had a weak- 
ness for large subjects and broad effects. If Lis am- 
bition w^as greater than his skill, he had still all the love 
of his art and the patience under discouragement, which 
are the stuff out of which successful painters are made. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


21 


Twice his brace of pictures had journeyed to town, 
and twice they had come back to him, until the finely 
gilded frames which had made such a call upon his 
purse began to show signs of these varied adventures. 
Yet ill spite of their depressing company Robert turned 
to his fresh work with all the enthusiasm which a convic- 
tion of ultimate success can inspire. 

But he could not work that afternoon. In vain he 
dashed in his background and outlined the long curves 
of the Roman galleys. Do what he would his mind 
would still wander from his w’ork to dwell upon his con- 
versation with the vicar in the morning. His imagina- 
tion was fascinated by the idea of this strange man liv- 
ing alone amid a crowd and yet wielding such a power 
that with one dash of his pen he could change sorrow 
into joy and transform the condition of a whole parish. 
The incident of the fifty-pound note came back to his 
mind. It must surely have been Raffles Haw with 
whom Hector Spurling had come in contact. There 
could not be two men in one parish to whom so large a 
sum was of so small an account as to be thrown to a by- 
stander in return for a trifling piece of assistance. Of 
course it must have been Raffles Haw. And his sister 
had the note with instructions to return it to the owner, 
could he be found. He threw aside his palette, a^nd 
descending into the sitting-room, he told Laura and his 
father of his morning’s interview with the vicar, and of 
his conviction that this was the man of whom Hector 
was in quest. 

“ Tut, tut,” said old McIntyre. “ How is this, Laura ? 
I knew nothing of this. What do women know of 
money or of business. Hand the note over to me and 
I shall relieve you of all responsibilit}'. I will take 
everything upon myself.” 


22 


THE DOIK08 OF BAFFLES HAW. 


‘‘I cannot possibly, papa,” said Laura, with decision. 
“I should not think of parting with it.” 

“What is the world coming to ! ” cried the old man, 
with his thin hands held up in protest. “ You grow 
more undutiful every day, Laura. This money would 
be of use to me — of use, you understand. It may be 
the corner-stone of the vast business which I shall re- 
construct. I will use it, Laura, and I will paj" some- 
thing — four, shall we say, or even four and a half — and 
you may have it back on any day. And I will give se- 
curity — the security of my — well, of my word of honor.” 

“It is quite impossible, papa,” his daughter answered, 
coldly. “It is not my money. Hector asked me to be 
his banker. Those were his very words. It is not in 
my power to lend it. As to what you say, Kobert, you 
maj' be right or 5’ou may be wrong, but I certainly shall 
not give Mr. Raffles Haw or anyone else the money 
without Hector’s express command.” 

“You are very right about not giving it to IMr. Raffles 
Haw',” cried old McIntyre, with many nods of approba- 
tion. “I should certainly not let it go out of the family.” 

“Well, I thought that I would tell you.” Robert 
picked up his Tam-o’-Shanter and strolled out to avoid 
the discussion between his father and sister, which he 
saw was about to be renewed. His artistic nature re- 
volted from these petty and sordid disputes, and he 
turned to the crisp air and the broad landscape to 
soothe his ruffled feelings. Avarice had no place among 
his failings, and his father’s perpetual chatter about 
money inspired him with a positive loathing and dis- 
gust for the subject. 

Robert was lounging slowly along his favorite walk, 
which curled over the hill, with his mind turning from 
the Roman invasion to the mysterious millionaire, when 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


23 


his eyes fell upon a tall lean man in front of him who, 
with a pipe between his lips, was endeavoring to light a 
match under cover of his cap. The man was clad- in a 
rough pea-jacket and bore traces of smoke and grime 
upon his face and hands. Yet there is a freemasonry 
among smokers which overrides every social difference, 
so Robert stopped and held out his case of fusees. 

“ A light ? ” said he. 

“Thank 3'ou.” The man picked out a fusee, struck 
it, and bent his head to it. He had a pale thin face, a 
short straggling beard, and a very sharp and curving 
nose, with decision and character in the straight thick 
eyebrows which almost met on either side of it. Clearly 
a superior kind of workman, and possibly one of those 
who had been employed in the construction of the new 
house. Here was a chance of getting some first-hand 
information on the question which had aroused his curi- 
osity. Robert waited until he had lit his pipe and then 
walked on beside him. 

“ Are you going in the direction of the new hall ? ” 
he asked. 

“Yes.” The man’s voice was cold and his manner 
reserved. 

“ Perhaps you were engaged in the building of it?” 

“Yes, I had a hand in it.” 

“ They say that it is a wonderful place inside. It has 
been quite the talk of the district. Is it as rich ns they 
say ? ” 

“I am sure I don’t know. I have not heard what 
they say.” 

His attitude was certainly not encouraging, and it 
seemed to Robert that he gave little sidelong suspicious 
glances at him out of his keen gray eyes. Yet if he 
were so careful and discreet there was the more reason 


24 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


to think that there was information to be extracted, if he 
could but find a way to it. 

“Ah, there it lies,” he remarked, as they topped the 
brow of the hill, and looked down once more at the 
great building. 

“Well, no doubt it is very gorgeous and splendid, 
but really, for my own part, I would rather live in my 
own little box down yonder in the village.” 

The workman puffed gTavely at his pipe. “ You are 
no great admirer of wealth then ? ” he said. 

“Not I. I should not care to be a penny richer than 
I am. Of course, I should like to sell my pictures. One 
must make a living. But beyond that I ask for nothing. 
I daresay that I, a poor artist, or you, a man who works 
for your bread, have more happiness out of life than the 
owner of that great palace.” 

“ Indeed, I think that it is more than likely,” the other 
answered, in a much more conciliatory voicej 

“ Alt,” said Eobert, warming to the subject, “ is her 
own reward. What mere bodily indulgence is there to 
be bought by money which can give that deep thrill of 
satisfaction which comes on the man who has conceived 
something new, something beautiful, and the daily de- 
light as he sees it grow under his hand, until it stands 
before him a completed whole ? With my art and with- 
out wealth I am hapjiy. Without my art I should have 
a void wdiicli no money could fill. But I really don’t 
know why I should say all this to you.” 

The workman had stopped and ^vas staring at him enr- 
nestN, wdth a look of the deepest interest upon his 
sm oke-d ark e n e d features. 

“ I am very glad to hear what you say,” said he. “ It 
is a pleasure to know that the worship of gold is not 
quite universal, and that there are at least some who can 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


25 


rise above it. Would you mind my shaking you by the 
hand ? ” 

It was a somewhat extraordinary request, but Eobert 
rather prided himself upon his Bohemianism, and upon 
his happy faculty for making friends with all sorts and 
conditions of men. He readily exchanged a cordial grip 
with his chance acquaintance. 

“ You expressed some curiosity as to this house. I 
know the grounds pretty well and might perhaps show 
you one or two little things which would interest you. 
Here are the gates. Will you come in with me ? 

Here was indeed a chance. Eobert eagerly assented 
and walked up the winding drive amid the growing fir- 
trees. When he found his uncouth guide however 
marching straight across the broad gravel square to the 
main entrance he felt that he had placed himself in a 
false position. . “ Surely not through the front door ! ” 
he whispered, plucking* his companion 'by the sleeve. 

Perhaps Mr. Eafifles Haw might not like it.” 

“I don’t think there will be any difficulty,” said the 
other, with a quiet smile. “My name is Eaffles Haw.” 


CHAPTER in. 


A HOUSE OF WONDERS. 

Robert McIntyre’s face must have expressed the utter 
astonishment which filled his mind at this most unlooked- 
for announcement. For a moment he thought that his 
companion must be joking, but the ease and assurance 
with which he lounged up the steps, and the deep respect 
with which a richly clad functionary in the hall sw'ung 
open the door to admit him, showed that he spoke in 
sober earnest. Raffles Haw glanced back, and seeing 
the look of absolute amazement upon the young artist’s 
features, he chuckled quietly to himself. 

“ You will forgive me, won’t you, for not disclosing 
my identity,” he said, laying his hand with a friendly 
gesture upon the other’s sleeve. “ Had you known me 
you would have spoken less freely and I should not 
have had the opportunity of learning your true 'worth. 
For example, you might hardly have been so frank upon 
the matter of wealth had you known that you were speak- 
ing to the master of. the hall.” 

“ I don’t think that I was ever so astonished in my 
life,” gasped Robert. 

“ Naturally you are. How could you take me for anj^- 
thing but a workman. So I am. Chemistry is one of 
my hobbies, and I spend hours a day in my laboratory 
yonder. I have only just struck work, and as I had in- 
haled some not over pleasant gases, I thought that a 
turn down the road and a whiff of tobacco might do me 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


27 


good. That was how I came to meet you, and my toilet, 
I fear, corresponded only too well with my smoke-be- 
grimed face. But I rather fancy I know you by re- 
pute. Your name is Kobert McIntyre, is it not ? ” 

“ Yes, though I cannot imagine how you knew.” 

“ Well, I naturally took some little trouble to learn 
something of my neighbors. I had heard that there was 
an artist of that name, and I presume that artists are not 
very numerous in Tamfield. But how do you like the 
design ? I hope it does not offend your trained taste.” 

“ Indeed it is wonderful, marvellous. You must your- 
self have an extraordinary eye for an effect.” 

“ Oh, I have no taste at all — not the slightest. I 
cannot tell good from bad. There was never such a 
complete Philistine. But I had the best man in London 
down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed it 
up between them.” 

They had been standing just wdthin the folding-doors 
upon a huge mat of bison skins. In front of them lay a 
great square court, paved with many-colored marbles, 
laid out in a labyrinth of arabesque design. In the cen- 
tre a fountain of carved jade shot five high thin feathers 
of S23ray into the air, four of which curved toward each 
corner of the court, to descend into broad marble basins, 
while the fifth mounted straight up to an immense 
height, and then tinkled back into the central reservoir. 
On either side of the court a tall graceful palm-tree shot 
up its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping 
green leaves some fifty feet above their heads. All 
round were a series of Moorish arches, in jade and ser- 
pentine marble, with heavy curtains of the deepest pur- 
jfie to cover the doors which lay between them. In 
front, to right and left, a broad staircase of marble, 
caiq^eted with rich thick Smyrna rug-work, led to the 


28 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES IIAW. 


upper stories, wliicli were arranged around the central 
court. The temperature within was warm and j^et fresh, 
like the air of an English May. 

“ It’s taken from the Alhambra,” said Baffles Haw. 
“ The palm-trees are pretty. They strike right through 
the building into the ground beneath, and their roots 
are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem to 
thrive very well.” 

“ What beautifully delicate brass-work!” cried Bob- 
ert, looking uj^, with admiring e^^es, at the bright and 
infinitely fragile metal trellis screens which adorned the 
spaces between the Moorish arches. 

“It is rather neat. But it is not brass- work. Brass 
is not tough enough to allow them to work it to that 
degree of fineness. It is gold. But just come this way 
with me. You won’t mind waiting while I remove this 
smoke.” 

He led the way to a door upon the left side of the 
court, which, to Bobert’s surprise, swung slowly open as 
they approached it. 

“ That is a little improvement which I have adopted,” 
remarked the master of the house. “ As you go up to a 
door your weight upon the planks releases a spring 
which causes the hinges to revolve. Pray step in. This 
is my own little sanctum, and furnished after my own 
heart.” 

If Bobert expected to see some fresh exhibition of 
wealth and luxury he was wofully disappointed, for he 
found himself in a large but bare room, with a little iron 
truckle bed in one corner, a few scattered wooden chairs, 
a dingy carpet, and a large table heaped with books, 
bottles, papers, and all the other debris which collect 
around a busy and' untidy man. Motioning his visitor 
into a chair. Baffles Haw pulled off his coat, and turning 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


29 


up the sleeves of his coarse flannel shirt, he began to 
plunge and scrub in the warm water which flowed from 
a tap in the wall. 

“ You see how simple mj own tastes are,” he remarked, 
as he mopped his dripiflng face and hair with a towel. 
“ This is the only room in my great house where I find 
myself in a congenial atmosphere. It is homely to me. 
I can read here and smoke my pipe in peace. Anything 
like luxury is abhorrent to me.” 

“ Really, I should not have thought it,” observed 
Robert. 

“It is a fact, I assure you. You see, even with 3^our 
views as to worthlessness of wealth, views which, I am 
sure, are very sensible and much to 3’our credit, j'ou 
must allow that if a man should happen to be the pos- 
sessor of vast — well, let us say of considerable — sums of 
monej", it is his duty to get that money into circulation, 
so that the community may be the better for it. There 
is the secret of my fine feathers. I have to exert all my 
ingenuity in order to spend my income and j^et keep 
the money in legitimate channels. For example, it is 
very easy to give money awa}", and no doubt I could dis- 
pose of my surplus, or part of my surplus, in that fash- 
ion, but I have no wish to pauperize anyone, or to do 
mischief by indiscriminate charit}". I must exact some 
sort of money’s worth for all the money which I lay out. 
You see my point, don’t you ? ” 

“ Entirel}", though really it is something novel to 
hear a man complain of the difficulty of spending his 
income.” 

“ I assure you that it is a veiy serious difficulty with 
me. But I have hit upon some plans — some very 
pretty plans. AVill you wash 3’our hands ? Well, then, 
perhaps you would care to have a look round? Just 


30 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW, 


come into tins corner of the room and sit upon this 
chair — so. Now I will sit upon this one, and we are 
ready to start.” 

The angle of the chamber in which they sat was 
painted for about six feet in each direction of a dark 
chocolate brown, and was furnished with two red plush 
seats protruding from the walls, and in striking contrast 
wnth the sim23licity of the rest of the a23artment. 

“ This,” remarked Baffles Haw, “is a lift, though it 
is so closely joined to the rest of the room that without 
the change in color it might puzzle you to find the di- 
vision. It is made to run either horizontally or verti- 
cally. This line of knobs represent the various rooms. 
You can see ‘dining,’ ‘smoking,’ ‘billiard,’ ‘library,’ 
and so on u2:)on them. I will show you the upward ac- 
tion. I press this one with ‘ kitchen ’ upon it.” 

There was a sense of motion, a very slight jar, and 
Kobert, without moving from his seat, was conscious 
that the room had vanished, and that a large arched 
oaken door stood in the jdace which it had occujned. 

“ That is the kitchen door,” said Baffles Haw. “ I 
have my kitchens at the top of the house. I cannot 
tolerate the smell of cooking. We have come up eighty 
feet in one and a half seconds. Now I jpress again and 
here we are in my room once more.” 

Bobert McIntyre stared about him in astonishment. 
“The wonders of science are greater than those of 
magic,” he remarked. 

“Yes, it is a jDrettj’’ little mechanism. Now we try 
the horizontal. I press the ‘ dining ’ knob and here we 
are, you see. Stej) toward the door, and you will find 
it open in front of you.” 

Bobert did as he was bid, and found himself with 
his companion in a large and lofty room, while the lift, 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


31 


the instant that it was freed from their weight, flashed 
back to its original position. With his feet sinking into 
the soft rich carpet, as though he were ankle-deep in 
some mossy bank, he stared about him at the great pict- 
ures which lined the walls. 

“Surely, surely, I see Kaphael’s touch there,” he 
cried, pointing up at the one which faced him. 

“ Yes, it is a Raphael, and I believe one of his best. 
I had a very exciting bid for it with the French Gov- 
ernment. They wanted it for the Louvre, but of course 
at an auction the longest purse must win.” 

“And this ‘Arrest of Catiline’ must be a Rubens. 
One cannot mistake his splendid men and his infamous 
women.” 

“Yes, it is a Rubens. The other two are a Velasquez 
and a Teniers, fair specimens of the Spanish and of the 
Dutch schools. I have only old masters here. The 
moderns are in the billiard-room. The furniture here 
is a little curious — in fact, I fancy that it is unique. It 
is made of ebony and narwhal’s horns. You see that 
the legs of everything are of spiral ivory, both the table 
and the chairs. It cost the upholsterer some little 
pains, for the supply of these things is a strictly limited 
one. Curiously enough, the Chinese Emperor had given 
a large order for narwhal’s horns to repair some an- 
cient pagoda which was fenced in with them, but I out- 
bid him in the market, and his Celestial highness has 
had to wait. There is a lift here in the corner, but 
we do not need it. Pray step through this door. This 
is the billiard-room,” he continued, as they advanced 
into the adjoining room. “You see I have a few re- 
cent pictures of merit upon the walls. Here is a Corot, 
two Meissonniers, a Bouguereau, a Millais, an Orchard- 
son, and two Alma Tademas. It seems to me to be a 


33 THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW, 

pity to hang pictures over these walls of carved oak. 
Look at those birds hopping and singing in the 
branches. They really seem to move and twitter, don’t 
they?” 

“They are perfect. I never saw such exquisite w'ork. 
But why do you call it a billiard-room, Mr. Haw ? I do 
not see any board.” 

“ Oh, a board is such a clumsy, uncompromising piece 
of furniture. It is always in the way, unless you act- 
ually need to use it. In this case the board is covered 
by that square of polished maple which j'ou see let into 
the floor. Now I put my foot upon this motor. You 
see ! ” As he spoke the central portion of the flooring 
flew up, and a most beautiful tortoise-shell-plated bill- 
iard-table rose up some four feet into the air. He 
pressed a second spring and a bagatelle-table appeared 
in the same fashion. “You may have card-tables or 
what you will by setting the levers in motion,” he re- 
marked. “But all this is very trifling. Perhaps we 
may find something in the museum which may be of 
more interest to you.” 

He led the way into another chamber, which was fur- 
nished in antique style, with hangings of the rarest 
and richest tapestry. The floor was a mosaic of colored 
marbles, scattered over with mats of costly fur. There 
was little furniture, but a number of Louis-quatorze 
cabinets of ebony and silver, with delicately painted 
plaques, were ranged round the apartment. 

“It is i>erhaps hardly fair to dignify it*by the name 
of a museum,” said Baffles Haw. “ It consists merely 
of a few elegant trifles which I have picked up here and 
there. Gems are mj’- strongest point. I fancy that there 
— perhaps I might challenge comparison with any pri- 
vate collector in the world. I lock them up, for even 


THE B0INO8 OF RAFFLES HAW. 


33 


the best servants may be tempted.” He took a silver 
key from his watch-chain and began to unlock and draw 
out the drawers. A cry of wonder and of admiration 
burst from Robert McIntyre, as his eyes rested upon 
case after case filled with the most magnificent stones. 
The deep still red of the rubies, the clear scintillating 
green of the emeralds, the hard glitter of the diamonds, 
the many shifting shades of beryls, of amethysts, of 
onyxes, of cats’-eyes, of ojDals, of agates, of cornelians, 
seemed to fill the whole chamber with a vague twink- 
ling of many-colored lights. Long slabs of the beauti- 
ful blue lapis lazuli, magnificent bloodstones, specimens 
of pink and red and white coral, long strips of lustrous 
pearls, all these were tossed out by their owner as a 
careless schoolboy might pour marbles from his bag. 

“ This isn’t bad,” he said, holding up a great glowing 
yellow mass as large as his own head. “ It is reall}" a 
ver}^ fine piece of amber. It was forwarded to me by 
my agent at the Baltic. Twenty-eight pounds it Aveighs. 
I never heard of so fine a one. I have no very large 
brilliants — there w’ere no very large ones in the market 
— but my average is good. Pretty toys, are thej" not ? ” 
He picked up a large double handful of emeralds from 
a drawer, and then let them trickle slowly back into the 
heap. 

‘‘ Good heavens ! ” cried Robert, as he gazed from 
case to case. “It is an immense fortune in itself. 
Surely a hundred thousand pounds would hardly buy so 
splendid a collection.” 

“I don’t think that you w^ould do for a valuer of 
precious stones,” said Raffles Haw, laughing. “ Why, 
the contents of that one little drawer of brilliants could 
not be bought for the sum which you name. I have a 
memo, here of what I have expended up to date on my 
3 


34 


THE DOimS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


collection, tliougli I have agents at work who will prob- 
ably make very considerable additions to it within the 
next few weeks. As matters stand, however, I have 
spent — let me see — pearls, one forty thousand ; emer- 
alds, seven fifty ; rubies, eight forty ; brilliants, nine 
twenty; onyxes — I have several very nice onyxes — two 
thirty. Other gems, carbuncles, agates — hum ! Yes, 
it figures out at just over four million seven hundred 
and forty thousand. I daresay that we may say five 
million, for I have not counted the odd money.” 

“ Good gracious ! ” cried the young artist, with star- 
ing eyes. 

“I have a certain feeling of duty in the matter. You 
see the cutting, polishing, and general sale of stones is 
one of those industries which is entirely dependent 
upon wealth. If we do not support it it must languish, 
which means misfortune to a considerable number of 
people. The same applies to the gold filigree-work 
which you noticed in the court. Wealth has its re- 
sponsibilities, and the encouragement of these handi- 
crafts are among the most obvious of them. Here is 
a nice ruby. It is Burmese, and the fifth largest in 
existence. I am inclined to think' that if it were uncut 
it would be the second, but of course cutting takes away 
a great deal.” He held up the blazing red stone, about 
the size of a chestnut, between his finger and thumb for 
a moment, and then threw it carelessly back into its 
drawer. “ Come into the ^moking-room,” he said. 
“ You will need some little refreshment, for they say 
that sight-seeing is the most exhausting occupation in 
the world.” 


CHAPTER IV. 



FROM CLIME TO CLIME. 

The chamber in which the bewildered Robert now 
found himself was more luxurious, if less rich, than 
any which he had yet seen. Low settees of claret-col- 
ored plush were scattered in orderly disorder over a 
mossy Eastern carpet. Deep lounges, reclining sofas, 
American rocking-chairs — all were to be had for the 
choosing. One end of the room was walled by glass, and 
appeared to open upon a luxuriant hot-house. At the 
farther end a double line of gilt rails supported a profu- 
sion of the most recent magazines and periodicals. A 
rack at each side of the inlaid fireplace sustained a long 
line of the pipes of all places and nations — English 
cherrywoods, French briers, German china-bowls, carved 
meerschaums, scented cedar and myall wood, with East- 
ern narghiles, Turkish chibouks, and two great golden- 
topped hookahs. To right and left were a series of 
small lockers, extending in a treble row for the whole 
length of the room, with the names of the various 
brands of tobacco scrolled in ivory- work across them. 
Above were other larger tiers of polished oak, which 
held cigars and cigarettes. 

“ Try that Damascus settee,” said the master of the ' 
house, as he threw himself into a rocking-chair. “It 
is from the Sultan’s upholsterer. The Turks have a 
very good notion of comfort. I am a confirmed smoker 
myself, Mr. McIntyre, so I have been able perhaps to 


36 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


check my architect here more than in most of the other 
departments. Of pictures, for example, I know noth- 
ing, as you would very speedily find out. On a tobacco 
I might perhaps offer an opinion. Now these ” — he drew 
out some long beautifully rolled mellow-colored cigars 
— “ these are really something a little out of the com- 
mon. Do try one.” 

Kobert lit the weed which was offered to him and 
leaned back luxuriously amid his cushions, gazing 
through the blue balmy fragrant cloud-wreaths at the 
extraordinary man in the dirty pea-jacket, who spoke 
of millions as another might of sovereigns. With his 
pale face, his sad, languid air, and his bowed shoulders, 
it was as though he were crushed down under the weight 
of his own gold. There was a mute apology, an attitude 
of deprecation, in his whole manner and speech, which 
was strangely at variance with the immense power which 
he wielded. To Eobert the whole whimsical incident 
had been intensely interesting and amusing. His artis- 
tic nature blossomed out in this atmosphere of perfect 
luxury and comfort, and he was conscious of a sense of 
repose and of absolute sensual contentment such as he 
had never before experienced. 

“ Shall it be coffee, or Ehine wine, or Tokay, or per- 
haps something stronger ? ” asked Eaffies Haw, stretch- 
ing out his hand to what looked like a piano-board 
projecting from the wall. “ I can recommend the 
Tokay. I have it from the man who supplies the Em- 
peror of Austria, though I think I may say that I get 
the cream of it.” He struck twice upon one of the 
piano-notes and sat expectant. With a sharp click at 
the end of ten seconds a sliding shutter flew open and 
a small tray protruded bearing two long tapering Vene- 
tian glasses filled with wine. 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


37 


'‘It works very nicely,” said Eaffles Haw. “It is 
quite a new thing — never before done, as far as I know. 
You see the names of the various wines and so on are 
printed on the notes. By pressing the note down I 
complete an electric circuit which causes the tap in the 
cellars beneath to remain open long enough to fill the 
glass which always stands beneath it. The glasses, you 
understand, stand upon a revolving drum, so that there 
must always be one there. The glasses are then brought 
up through a pneumatic tube, which is set working by 
the increased weight of the glass when the wine is added 
to it. It is a pretty little idea. But I am afraid that I 
bore you rather with all these petty contrivances. It is 
a whim of mine to push mechanism as far as it will go.” 

“ On the contrary, I am filled with interest and won- 
der,” said Robert, warmly. “It is as if I had been sud- 
denly whipped up out of prosaic old England and trans- 
ferred in an instant to some enchanted palace, some East- 
ern home of the Genii. I could not have believed that 
there existed upon this earth such adaptation of means 
to an end, such complete mastery of every detail which 
may aid in stripping life of any of its petty worries.” 

“ I have something yet to show you,” remarked 
Raffles Haw. “ But we will rest here for a few minutes, 
for I wish to have a word with you. How is the cigar ? ” 

“ Most excellent.” 

“It was rolled in Louisiana in the old slavery days. 
There is nothing made like them now. The man who 
had them did not know their value. He let them go at 
merely a few shillings apiece. Now I want you to do 
me a favor, Mr. McIntyre.” 

“ I shall be so glad.” 

“ You can see more or less how I am situated. I am a 
complete stranger here. With the well-to-do classes I 


38 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


have little in common. I am no society man. I don’t 
want to call or be called on. I am a student in a small 
way, and a man of quiet tastes. I have no social ambi- 
tions at all. Do you understand V ” 

“ Entirely.” 

“ On the other hand, my experience of the world has 
been that it is the rarest thing to be able to form a 
friendship with a poorer man — I mean with a man who 
is at all eager to increase his income. They think much 
of your wealth and little of yourself. I have tried, you 
understand, and I know.” He paused and ran his fin- 
gers through his thin beard. Robert McIntyre nodded 
to show that he appreciated his position. 

“Now, you see,” he continued, “if I am to be cut off 
from the rich by my own tastes, and from those who are 
not rich by my distrust of their motives, my situation 
is an isolated one. Not that I mind isolation ; I am 
used to it. But it limits my field of usefulness. I have 
no trustworthy means of informing myself when and 
where I may do good. I have already, I am glad to say, 
met a man to-day, your vicar, who appears to be thor- 
oughly unselfish and trustworthy. He shall be one of 
my channels of communication with the outer world. 
Might I ask you whether you would be willing to be- 
come another ? ” 

“ With the greatest pleasure,” said Robert, eagerly. . 
The proposition filled his heart with joy, for it seemed 
to give him an almost official connection with this para- 
dise of a house. He could not have asked for anything 
more to his taste. 

“ I was fortunate enough to discover by your conver- 
sation how high a ground you take in such matters, and 
how entirely disinterested you are. You may have ob- 
served that I was short and almost rude with you at 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


39 


first. I have had reason to fear and suspect all chance 
friendships. Too often the}^ have proved to be carefully 
planned beforehand, with some sordid object in view. 
Good heavens, what stories I could tell you ! A lady 
pursued by a bull— I have risked my life to save her, 
and have learned afterward that the scene had been ar- 
ranged by the mother as an effective introduction, and 
that the bull had been hired by the hour. But I won’t 
shake j'our faith in human nature. I have had some 
rude shocks myself. I look perhaps with a jaundiced 
eye on all who come near me. It is the more need- 
ful that I should have one whom I can trust to advise 
me.” 

“If you will only show me where my opinion can be 
of any use I shall be most happy,” said Kobert. “ My 
people come from Birmingham, but I know most of the 
folk here and their position.” 

“ That is just what I want. Money can do so much 
good, and it may do so much harm. I shall consult you 
when I am in doubt. By the waj’’, there is one small 
question which I might ask you now. Can you tell me 
who a young lady is with very dark hair, gray eyes, and 
a finely chiselled face. She wore a blue dress when I 
saw her, with astrakhan about her neck and cuffs ? ” 

liobert chuckled to himself. “I know that dress 
pretty well,” he said. “It is my sister Laura whom 
you describe.” 

“ Your sister ! Beally ! Why, there is a resemblance, 
now that my attention is called to it. I saw her the other 
day, and wondered who she might be. She lives with 
you, of course? ” 

“Yes. My father, she, and I live together at Elm- 
dene.” 

“ Where I hope to have the pleasure of making their 


40 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES 11 AW. 


acquaintance. You have finished your cigar ? Have an- 
other, or try a pipe. To the real smoker all is mere 
trifliug save the pipe. I have most brands of tobacco 
here. The lockers are filled on the Monday, and on 
Saturday they are handed over to the old folk at the 
alms-houses, so I manage to keep it pretty fresh always. 
Well, if you won’t take anything else, perhaps you would 
care to see' one or two of the other effects which I have 
devised. On this side is the armory, and beyond it the 
library. My collection of books is a limited one, there 
are just over the hundred thousand volumes, but it is 
to some extent remarkable for quality. I have a Visigoth 
Bible of the fifth century, which I rather fancy is unique. 
There is a Biblia Pauperum of 1430, a MS. of Genesis 
done upon mulberry leaves, probably of the second cen- 
tury. A Tristan and Isault of the eighth century, and 
some hundred black letters, with five very fine specimens 
of Schoffer and Faust. But those you may turn over any 
wet afternoon when you have nothing better to 
Meanwhile I have a little device connected with this 
smoking-room which may amuse you. Light this other 
cigar. Now sit with me upon that lounge which stands 
at the further end of the room.” 

The sofa in question was in a niche which was lined 
on three sides and above with perfectly clear, transparent 
crystal. As they sat down the master of the house drew 
a cord which pulled dowui a crystal shutter behind them, 
so they were enclosed on all sides in a great box of 
glass, so pure and so highly polished that its presence 
might very easily be forgotten. A number of golden 
cords with crystal handles hung down into this small 
chamber, and appeared to be connected with a long 
shining bar outside. 

“Now, where would you like to smoke your cigar?” 


THE DOimS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


41 


said Raffles Haw, witli a twinkle in liis demure eyes. 
“Shall we go to India, or to Egypt, or to China, or 
to ” 

“To South America,” said Robert. 

There was a tinkle, a whirr, and a sense of motion. 
The young artist gazed about him in absolute amaze- 
ment. Look where he would, all round were tree ferns 
and palms with long drooping creepers, and a blaze of 
brilliant orchids. Smoking room, house, England, all 
were gone, and he sat on a settee in the heart of a virgin 
forest of the Amazon. It was no mere optical delusion, 
or trick. He could see the hot steam rising from the 
tropical undergrowth, the heavy drops falling from the 
huge green leaves, the very grain and fibre of the rough 
bark which clothed the trunks. Even as he gazed, a 
green mottled snake curled noiselessly over a branch 
above his head, and a bright-colored parroquet broke 
suddenly from amid the foliage, and flashed off among 
the tree-trunks. Robert gazed around, speechless with 
surprise, and finally turned upon his host a face in 
which curiosity was not unmixed with a suspicion of 
fear. 

“People have been burned for less, have they not?” 
cried Raffles Haw, laughing heartily. “ Have you had 
enough of the Amazon. What do you say to a spell of 
Egypt?” 

Again the whirr, the swift flash of passing objects, 
and in an instant a huge desert stretched on every side 
of them, as far as eye could reach. In the foreground 
a clump of five palm-trees towered into the air, with a 
profusion of rough cactus-like plants bristling from their 
base. On the other side rose a rugged gnarled gray 
monolith, carved at the foot into a huge scarabseus. A 
group of lizards played about on the surface of the old 


42 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES UAW. 


carved stone. Beyond, the j^ellow sand stretched away 
into furthest space, where the dim mirage mist played 
along the horizon. 

“ Mr. Haw ! I cannot understand it ! ” Kobert 
grasped the velvet edge of the settee, and gazed wildly 
about him. 

“ The effect is rather startling, is it not? This Egyp- 
tian desert is my favorite when I lay myself out for a 
contemplative smoke. It seems strange that tobacco 
should have come from the busy, practical West. It has 
much more affinity for the dreamy, languid East. But 
perhaps you would like to run over to China for a 
change.” 

“ Not to-day,” said Robert, passing his hand over his 
forehead. “ I feel a little confused by all these w'onders, 
and indeed I think that they have affected my nerves a 
little. Besides, it is time that I returned to my prosaic 
little Elmdene, if I can find my way out of this wilder- 
ness to which you have transplanted me. But w’ould 
you ease my mind, Mr. Haw, by showing me how this 
thing is done ? ” 

“ It is the merest toy — a complex plaything, nothing 
more. Allow me to explain. I have a line of very large 
greenhouses which extend from one end of my smok- 
ing-room. These different houses are kept at vaiying 
degrees of heat and humidity so as to reproduce the ex- 
act climates of Egypt, China, and the rest. You see : 
our crystal chamber is a tramway running with a mini- 
mum of friction along a steel rod. By pulling this or 
that handle I regulate how far it shall go, and it travels, 
as you have seen, with amazing speed. The efi^ect of my 
hot-houses is heightened by the roofs being invariably 
concealed by skies, wdiich are really very admirably 
painted, and by the introduction of birds and other 


THE D0IHG8 OF BAFFLES HAW. 


43 


creatures which seem to flourish quite as well in artifi- 
cial as in natural heat. This explains the South Amer- 
ican effect.” 

‘•But not the Egyptian.” 

“ No. It is certainly rather clever. I had the best 
man in France, at least the best at those large effects, to 
paint in that circular background. You understand, the 
palms, cacti, obelisk, and so on are perfectly genuine, 
and so is the sand for fifty yards or so, and I defy the 
keenest-e3'ed man in England to tell where the decep- 
tion commences. It is the familiar, and perhaps rather 
meretricious, effect of a circular panorama, but carried 
out in the most complete manner. Was there any other 
point ? ” 

“The crystal box. Why was it ? ” 

“ To preserve my guests from the effects of the changes 
of temperature It would be a poor kindness to bring 
them back to my smoking-room drenched through, and 
with the seeds of a violent cold. The crystal has to be 
kept warm too, otherwise vapor would deposit and you 
would have your view spoiled. But must you really 
go ? Then here we are back in the smoking-room. I 
hope that it will not be your last visit by many a one. 
And if I may come down to Elmdene I should be 
very glad to do so. This is the way, through the mu- 
seum.” 

As Kobert McIntyre emerged from the balmy aromatic 
atmosphere of the great house, into the harsh, raw, bit- 
ing air of an English winter evening, he felt as though 
he had been away for a long visit in some foreign coun- 
try. Time is measured by impressions, and so vivid 
and novel had been his feelings that weeks and weeks 
might have elapsed since his chat with the smoke be- 
grimed stranger in the road. He walked along with his 


44 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


Tiead in a whirl, his whole mind possessed and intoxi- 
cated by the one idea of the boundless wealth and the 
immense power of this extraordinary stranger. Small 
and sordid and mean seemed his own Elmdene as he 
approached it, and he passed over its threshold full of 
restless discontent with himself and his surroundings. 


CHAPTER V. 


* lauka’s request. 

That night, after supper, Robert McIntyre poured 
forth all that he had seen to his father and to his sister. 
So full was he of the one subject that it was a relief to 
him to share his knowledge with others. Rather for his 
own sake, then, than for theirs, he depicted vividly all 
the marvels which he had seen, the profusion of wealth, 
the regal treasure-house of gems, the gold, the marble, 
the extraordinary devices, the absolute lavishness, and 
complete disregard for money which was shown in eveiy 
detail. For an hour he pictured with glowing words 
all the wonders which had been shown him, and ended 
with some pride by describing the request which Mr. 
Raffles Haw had made, and the complete confidence 
which he had placed in him. 

His words had a very different effect upon his two lis- 
teners. Old McIntyre leaned back in his chair with a 
bitter smile upon his lips, his thin face crinkled into a 
thousand puckers, and his small eyes shining with envy 
and greed. His lean yellow hand upon the table was 
clenched until the knuckles gleamed white in the lamp- 
light. Laura, on the other hand, leaned forward, her 
lips parted, drinking in her brother’s words, with a 
glow of color upon either cheek. It seemed to Robert, 
as he glanced from one to the other of them, that he had 
never seen his father look so evil, or his sister so beau- 
tiful. 


46 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW.] 


“ Who is the fellow, then ? ” asked the old man, after 
a considerable pause. “I hope he got all this in an 
honest fashion. Five millions in jewels, you say. Good 
gracious me ! Keady to give it away, too, but afraid of 
pauperizing anyone. You can tell him, Robert, that 
you know of one very deserving case w’hich has not the 
slightest objection to being pauperized.” 

“But who can he possibly be, Robert?” cried Laura. 
“Haw cannot be his real name. He must be some dis- 
guised prince, or perhaj^s a king in exile. Oh, I should 
have loved to see those diamonds — and the emeralds. 
I always think that emeralds suit dark people best. 
You must tell me again all about that museum, 
Robert.” 

“ I don’t think he is anything more than he pretends 
to be,” her brother answered. “ He has the plain, quiet 
manners of an ordinary middle-class Englishman. 
There was no particular polish that I could see. He 
knew a little about books and pictures, just enough to 
appreciate them, but nothing more. No, I fancy that 
he is a man quite in our own position of life, who has in 
some way inherited a vast sum. Of course it is difficult 
for me to form an estimate, but I should judge that 
what I saw to-day, house, pictures, jewels, books, and 
so on, could never have been bought under twenty mill- 
ion, and I am sure that that figure is entirely an under- 
estimate.” 

“I never knew but one Haw,” said old McIntyre, 
drumming his fingers on the table. “ He was a fore- 
man in my pin-fire cartridge-case department. But ho 
was an elderly single man. Well, I hope he got it all 
honestly. I hope the money is clean.” ♦ 

“And really, really, he is coming to see us!” cried 
Laura, clapping her hands. “Oh, when do you think 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 47 

he will come, Robert ? Do give me warning. Do j’ou 
think it will be to-morrow?” 

‘‘I am sure I cannot say.” 

“ I should so love to see him. I don’t know when I 
have been so interested.” 

Why, you have a letter there,” remarked Robert. 
“From Hector, too, by the foreign stamp. How is 
he ? ” 

“ It only came this evening. I have not opened it 
yet. To tell the truth, I have been so interested in 
your story that I have forgotten all about it. Poor old 
Hector! It is from Madeira.” She glanced rajiidly 
over the four pages of straggling writing in the young 
sailor’s bold schoolboyish hand. “ Oh, he is all right,” 
she said. “They had a gale on the way out and that 
sort of thing, but it is all right now. He thinks he may 
be back by March. I wonder whether your new friend 
will come to-morrow — your knight of the enchanted 
castle.” 

“Hardly so soon, I should fancy.” 

“If he should be' looking about for an investment, 
Robert,” said the father, “ you won’t forget to tell him 
what a fine opening there is now in the gun-trade. 
With my knowledge, and a few thousands at my back, I 
could bring him in his thirty per cent, as regular as the 
bank. After all, he must lay out his money somehow. 
He cannot sink it all in books and precious stones. I 
am sure that I could give him the highest references.” 

“It may be a long time before he comes, father,” said 
Robert, coldly ; “ and when he does I am afraid that I 
can hardly use his friendship as a means of advancing 
your interests.” 

“We are his equals, father,” cried Laura, with spirit. 
“ Would you put us on the footing of beggars ? He 


48 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


would think we cared for him only for his money. I 
wonder that should think of such a thing.” 

“If I had not thought of such things where would 
your education have been, miss?” retorted the angry 
old man, and Robert stole quietly away to his room, 
whence amid his canvases he could still hear the hoarse 
voice and the clear in their never-ending family jangle. 
More and more sordid seemed the surroundings of his 
life, and more and more to be valued the peace which 
money can buy. 

Breakfast had hardly been cleared in the morning, 
and Robert had not j’et ascended to his work, when 
there came a timid tapping at the door, and there was 
Raffles Plaw on the mat outside. Robert ran out and 
welcomed him with all cordiality. 

“ I am afraid that I am a very early visitor,” he said, 
apologetically, “but I often take a w’alk after breakfast.” 
He had no traces of work upon him now, but was trim 
and neat, with a dark suit and carefully brushed hair. 
“ You spoke yesterday of your w'ork. Perhaps, early as 
it is, you would allow me the j)rivilege of looking over 
your studio.” 

“ Pray step in, ^Ir. Haw',” cried Robert, all in a flut- 
ter at this advance from so munificent a patron of art. 
“I shall be only too happy to show you such little work 
as I have on hand, though indeed I am almost afraid 
wdien I think how familiar you are with some of the 
greatest masterpieces. Allow mo to introduce you to 
my father and my sister Laura.” 

Old McIntyre bowed low and rubbed his thin hands 
together, but the young lady gave a gasp of surprise and 
stared w’itli widely-opened eyes at the millionaire. Haw 
stepped forward, however, and shook her quietly by the 
hand. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


49 


‘‘ I expected to find that it was you,” he said. ‘‘ I 
have already met your sister, Mr. McIntyre, on the very 
first day that I came here. We took shelter in a shed 
from a snowstorm, and had quite a pleasant little chat.” 

“ I had no notion that I was speaking to the owner of 
the hall,” said Laura, in some confusion. “How fun- 
nily things turn out, to be sure.” 

“I had often wondered who it was that I spoke to, 
but it was only yesterday that I discovered. What a 
sweet little place you have here ! It must be charming 
in summer. Why, if it were not for this hill my win- 
dows would look straight across at yours.” 

“ Yes, and we should see all your beautiful planta- 
tions,” said Laura, standing beside him in the Avindow. 
“ I was wishing only yesterday that the hill was not 
there.” 

“Eeally. I shall be happy to have it removed for 
you if you would like it.” 

“ Good gracious ! ” cried Laura. “ Why, where 
would you put it ? ” 

“ Oh, they could run it along the line, and dump it 
anywhere. It is not much of a hill. A few thousand 
men with proper machinery, and a line of rails brought 
right up to them, could easily dispose of it in a few 
months.” 

“ And the poor vicar’s house ? ” Laura asked, laugh- 
ing. 

“ Oh, I think that might be got over. We could run 
him up a facsimile which would perhaps be more con- 
venient to him. Your brother will tell you that I am 
quite an expert at the designing of houses. But seri- 
ously, if you think it would be an improvement I Avill 
see what can be done.” 

“ Not for the world, Mr. Haw. Why, I should be a 
4 


50 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


traitor to tlie whole village if I were to encourage srTch 
a scheme. The hill is the one thing which gives Tam- 
fiekl the slightest individuality. It would be the height 
of selfishness to sacrifice it in order to improve the view 
from Elmdene.” 

“ It is a little box of a place, this, Mr. Haw,” said old 
McIntyre ; “I should think you must feel quite stifled 
in it after your grand mansion, of which my son tells 
me such wonders. But we were not always accustomed 
to this sort of thing, Mr. Haw. Humble as I stand 
here, there was a time, and not so long ago, when I 
could write as many figures on a check as any gunmaker 
in Birmingham. It was ” 

“ He is a dear discontented old papa,” cried Laura, 
throwing her arm round him in a caressing manner. 
He gave a sharp squeak and a grimace of pain, which 
he endeavored to hide by an (^tbreak of painfully arti- 
ficial coughing. 

“ Shall we go upstairs,” said Robert, hurriedl}^, anx- 
ious to divert his guest’s attention from this little do- 
mestic incident. “ My studio is the real atelier, for it 
is right up under the tiles. I shall lead the way if you 
will have the kindness to follow me.” 

Leaving Laura and Mr. McIntyre, they went up to- 
gether to the work-room. Mr. Haw stood _long in front 
of the “Signing of Magna Charta” and the “Murder of 
Thomas a Becket,” screwing up his eyes, and twitching 
nervously at his beard, while Robert stood by in anxious 
expectancy. 

“And how much are these? ’’asked Raffles Haw, at 
last. 

“I priced them at a hundred a piece when I sent 
them to London.” 

“ Then the best I can wish you is that the day may 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES IIAW. 


51 


come wlien you would gladly give ten times the sum to 
have them back again. I am sure that there are great 
possibilities in you, and I see that in grouping and in 
boldness of design you have already achieved much. 
But your drawing, if you will excuse my saying so, is 
just a little crude, and your coloring perhaps a trifle 
thin. Now, I will make a bargain with you, Mr. Mc- 
Intyre, if you will consent to it. I know that money 
has no charm to you, but still, as you said when I first 
met you, a man must live. I shall buy these two can- 
vases from you at the price which you name, subject 
to the condition that you may always have them back 
again by repaying the same sura.” 

“ You are really very kind ! ” Robert hardly knew 
whether to be delighted at having sold his pictures, or 
humiliated at the frank criticism of the bujmr, 

“May I write a check at once?” said Raffles Haw. 
“ Here is pen and ink. So ! I shall send a couple of 
footmen down for them in the afternoon. Well, I shall 
keep them in trust for you. I dare say that wfflen you 
are famous they will be of value as specimens of your 
earl}" manner.” 

“ I am sure tliat I am extremely obliged to you, Mr. 
Haw,” said the young artist, placing the check in his 
note-book. He glanced at it as he folded it up, in the 
vague hope that perhaps this man of whims had as- 
sessed his pictures at a higher rate than he had named. 
The figures, however, were exact. Robert began dimly 
to perceive that there were drawbacks as well as advan- 
tages to the reputation of a money scorner, which he had 
gained by a few chance words, promjDted rather by the 
reaction against his father, than by his own real convic- 
tions. 

“ I hope. Miss McIntyre,” said Raffles Haw, when they 


52 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW, 


liad descended to the sitting-room once more, “that you 
will do me the honor of coming to see the little curi- 
osities which I have gathered together. Your brother 
w ill, I am sure, escort you up, or perhaps Mr. McIntyre 
w^ould care to come.” 

“I shall be delighted to come, Mr. Haw,” cried Laiira, 
wdth her sweetest smile. “A good deal of my time just 
now is taken up in looking after the poor people, who 
find the cold weather very trying.” Kobert raised his 
eyebrow’s, for it was the first he had heard of his sis- 
ter’s missions of merc}^ but Mr. Baffles Haw nodded ap- 
provingly. “ Bobert was telling us of your w^onderful 
hot-houses. I am sure I wdsh I could transport the 
whole parish into one of them, and give them a good 
w-arm.” 

“Nothing would be easier, but I am afraid that they 
might find it a little trying wdien they came out again. 
I have one house wdiich is only just finished. Your 
brother has not seen it yet, but I think it is the best of 
them all. It represents an Indian jungle, and is hot 
enough in all conscience.” 

“I shall so look forward to seeing it,” cried Laura, 
clasping her hands. “It has been one of the dreams of 
iny life to see India. I have read so much of it, the tem- 
ples, the forests, the great rivers, and the tigers. Why, 
you would hardly believe it, but I have never seen a 
tiger except in a picture.” 

“ That can easily be set right,” said Baffles Haw, wuth 
his quiet smile. “ Would you care to see one ? ” 

“Oh, immensely.” 

“I w’ill have one sent dowm. Let me see — it is 
nearly tw’elve o’clock. I can get a wire to Liverpool by 
one. There is a man there who deals in such things. I 
should think he would be due to-morrow mbrning. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


53 


Well, I shall look forward to seeing j’ou all before very 
long. I have rather overstayed my time, for I am a man 
of routine, and I always put in a certain number of 
hours in my laboratory.” He shook hands cordially with 
them all, and lighting his pipe at the doorstep, strolled 
off upon his way. 

“ Well, what do you think of him now? ” asked Kob- 
ert, as they \vatched his black figure against the white 
snow. 

“ I think he is no more fit to be trusted w'itli all that 
money than a child,” cried the old man. “ It made me 
positively sick to hear him talk of moving hills and 
buying tigers, and such-like nonsense, when there are 
honest men without a business, and great businesses 
starving for a little capital. It’s unchristian — that’s 
what I call it.” 

“I think he is most delightful, Robert,” said Laura. 
“ Remember you have promised to take us up to the 
hall. And he evidently wishes us to go soon. Don’t 
you think we might go this afternoon ? ” 

“I hardly think that, Laura. You leave it in my 
hands, and I will manage it all. And now I must get 
to work, for the light is so very short on these winter 
days.” 

That night Robert McInt3Te had gone to bed, and 
was dozing off, when a hand plucked at his -shoulder, 
and he started up to find his sister in some white 
drapeiy, with a shawl thrown over her shoulders, stand- 
ing beside him in the moonlight. 

“Robert, dear,” she whispered, stooping over him, 
“there was something I wanted to ask you, but papa 
w^as always in the way. You will do something to please 
me, Avon’t j^ou, Robert ? ” 

“ Of course, Laura. What is it ? ” 


54 


THE BOimS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


‘‘I do bate having my affairs talked over, dear. If 
Mr. Baffles Haw says anything to you about me, or asks 
any questions, please don’t say anything about Hector. 
You won’t, will you, Bobert, for the sake of your little 
sister ? ” 

“ No, not unless you wish it.” 

“There is a dear good brother.” She stooped over 
him and kissed him tenderly. It was a rare thing for 
Laura to show any emotion, and her brother marvelled 
sleepily over it until he relapsed into his interrupted 
doze. / 


CHAPTEE VI. 


A STKANGE VISITOR. 

The Mclotyre family were seated at breakfast on the 
morning which followed the first visit of Baffles Haw, 
when they w’ere surprised to hear the buzz and hum of 
a multitude of voices in the village street. Nearer and 
nearer came the tumult, and then, of a sudden, two 
maddened horses reared themselves up on the other 
side of the garden hedge, prancing and pawing, with 
ears laid back, and eyes ever glancing at some horror 
behind them. Two men hung shouting to their bri- 
dles, while a third came rushing up the curved gravel 
path. Before the McIntyres could realize the situation 
their maid, Mary, darted into the sitting-room with ter- 
ror in her round, freckled face. 

“If you please, miss,” she screamed, “your tiger has 
arrove.” 

“ Good heavens ! ” cried Kobert, rushing to the door 
with his half-filled tea-cup in his hand. “ This is too 
much. Here is an iron cage on a trolly with a great 
ramping tiger, and the whole village with their mouths 
open.” 

“Mad as a hatter,” shrieked Old McIntyre. “I 
could see it in his eye. He’s spent enough on this 
beast to start me in business. Who ever heard of 
such a thing. Tell the driver to take it to the police 
station.” 

“Nothing of the sort, papa,” said Laura, rising with 


56 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW, 


dignity, and wrapping a shawl about her shoulders. 
Her eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed, and she car- 
ried herself like a triumphant queen. Kobert, with his 
tea-cup in his hand, allowed his attention to be diverted 
from their strange visitor while he gazed at his beautiful 
sister. 

“ Mr. Eaflles Haw has done this out of kindness to me,” 
she said, sweeping toward the door. “ I look upon it 
as a great attention upon his part. I shall certainly go 
out and look at it.” 

“If you please, sir,” said the carman, reappearing 
at the door,“ it’s all as we can do to ’old in- the bosses.” 

“Let us all go out together, then,” suggested Robert. 
They went as far as the garden fence and stared over, 
while the whole village, from the school children to 
the old gray-haired men from the alms-houses, gath- 
ered round in mute astonishment. The tiger, a long, 
lithe, venomous-looking creature with two blazing green 
eyes, paced stealthily round the little cage, lashing its 
sides with its tail, and rubbing its muzzle against the 
bars. 

“ What were your orders?” asked Robert of the car- 
man. 

“It came through by special express from Liverpool, 
sir, and the train is drawn up at the Tamfield siding all 
ready to take it back. If it ’ad been ryalty the railway 
folk couldn’t have shown it more respec’. We are to 
take it back when you’ve done with it. It’s been a cruel 
job, sir, for our arms is pulled clean out of the sockets 
a-’oldin’ in of the ’osses.” 

“What a dear, sweet creature it is,” cried Laura. 
“ How sleek and how graceful ! I cannot understand 
how people could be afraid of anything so beautiful.” 

“If you please, marm,” said the carman, touching his 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


57 


sliin cap, “ be out with bis paw between tbe bars as we 
stood in tbe station yard, and if I ’adn’t pulled my mate 
Bill back it would ba’ been a case of kingdom come. It 
was a proper near squeak, I can tell ye.” 

“ I never saw anything more lovely,” continued Laura, 
loftily overlooking tbe remarks of tbe driver. “Itbas 
been a very great pleasure to me to see it, and I bope 
that you will tell Mr. Haw so if you see bim, Bobert.” 

“ Tbe borses are very restive,” said ber brother. “ Per- 
haps, Laura, if you have seen enough it would be as well 
to let them go.” 

She bowed in tbe regal fashion which she bad so sud- 
denly adopted. Robert shouted tbe order, tbe driver 
sprang up, bis comrades let tbe borses go, and away 
rattled tbe wagon and tbe trolley with half tbe Tamfield- 
ers streaming vainly behind it. 

“ Is it not wonderful what money can do ?” Laura re- 
marked, as they knocked tbe snow from their shoes 
within tbe porch. “There seems to be no wish which 
Mr. Haw could not at once gratify.” 

“ No wish of yours, you mean,” broke in ber father. 
“ It’s different when be is dealing with a wrinkled old 
man, who has spent himself in working for bis children. 
A plainer case of love at first sight I never saw.” 

“ How can you be so coarse, papa? ” cried Laura, but 
ber eyes flashed and ber teeth gleamed, as though tbe 
remark bad not altogether displeased ber. 

“ For heaven’s sake, be careful, Laura ! ” cried Robert. 
“It bad not struck me before, but really it does look 
rather like it. You know how you stand. Raffles Haw 
is not a man to play with.” 

“You dear old boy,” said Laura, laying ber bead 
upon bis shoulder, “ what do you know of such things ? 
All you have to do is to go on with your painting, and 


58 


TEE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


to remember tbe promise j^ou made me the other 
night.” 

“ What promise was that, then ? ” cried old McIntyre, 
suspiciously, 

“ Never .^"ou mind, papa. But if you forget it, Rob- 
ert, I shall never forgive you as long as I live.” 


CHAPTEE m 


THE WORKINGS OF WEALTH. 

It can easily be believed that as the weeks passed the 
name and fame of the mysterious owner of the new hall 
resounded over the quiet countryside until the rumor of 
him had spread to the remotest corners of Warwickshire 
and Staffordshire. In Birmingham on the one side, 
and in Coventry and Leamington on the other, there 
was gossip as to his untold riches, his extraordinary 
whims, and the remarkable life which he led. His name 
■was bandied from mouth to mouth, and a thousand ef- 
forts were made to find out who and what he was. In 
spite of all their pains, however, the newsmongers were 
unable to discover the slightest trace of his antecedents, 
or to form even a guess as to the secret of his riches. 

It was no wonder that conjecture was rife upon the 
subject, for hardly a day passed without furnishing some 
new instance of the boundlessness of his power, and of 
the goodness of his heart. Through the vicar, Eobert, 
and others, he had learned much of the inner life of the 
.parish, and many were the times when the struggling 
man, harassed and driven to the wall, found, thrust into 
his hands some morning, a brief note with an enclosure 
which rolled all the sorrow back from his life. One day 
a thick, double-breasted pea-jacket and a pair of good 
sturdy boots were served out to every old man in the 
almshouse. On another, Miss Swire, the decayed gen- 
tlewoman who eked out her small annuity by needle- 


60 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


work, had a brand new, first-class sewing-machine handed 
into her, to take the place of the old worn-out treadle 
which tiled her rheumatic joints. The pale-faced school- 
master who had spent years with hardly a break in strug- 
gling with the juvenile obtuseness of Tarnfield, received 
through the post a circular ticket for a two-months’ tour 
through Southern Europe, with hotel coupons and all 
complete. John Hackett, the farmer, after five long 
years of bad seasons borne with a brave heart, had at 
last been overthrown by the sixth, and had the bailiffs 
actually in the house, when the good vicar had rushed in 
waving a note above his head, to tell him not only that 
his deficit had been made up, but that enough remained 
over to provide the improved machinery which would 
enable him to hold his own for the future. An almost 
superstitious feeling came upon the rustic folk as they 
looked at the great house when the sun gleamed upon 
the huge hot-houses, or even more so, perhaps, when at 
night the brilliant electric lights shot their white radi- 
ance through the countless rows of windows. To them 
it was as if some minor Providence presided in that great 
palace, unseen but seeing all, boundless in its power and 
in its graciousness, ever ready to assist and to befriend. 
In every good deed, however. Raffles Haw still remained 
in the background, while the vicar and Robert had the 
pleasant task of conveying his benefits to the lowly and 
the suffering. 

Once only did he appear in his own person, and that 
was upon the famous occasion when he saved the well- 
known bank of Garraweg Brothers in Birmingham. The 
most charitable and upright of men, the two brothers, 
Louis and Rupert, had built up a business which ex- 
tended its ramifications into every townlet of four coun- 
ties. The failure of their Loudon agents had brought a 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


61 


hefivy loss upon' them, and the circumstance leaking out, 
had caused a sudden and most dangerous run upon their 
establishment. Urgent telegrams for bullion from all 
their forty branches poured in at the very instant when 
the head office was crowded with anxious clients, all 
waving their deposit books and clamoring for their 
money. Bravely did the two brothers with their staff 
stand with smiling faces behind the shining counter, 
while swift messengers sped, and telegrams flashed, to 
draw in all the available resources of the bank. All day 
the stream poured through the office, and when four 
o’clock came, and the doors were closed for the day, 
the street without was still blocked by the expectant 
crowct, while there remained scarce a thousand pounds 
of bullion in the cellars. 

“It is only postponed, Louis,” said brother Eupert, 
despairingly, when the last clerk had left the office, and 
when at last they could relax the fixed smile upon their 
haggard faces. 

“Those shutters will never come down again,” cried 
brother Louis, and the two suddenly burst out sobbing 
in each other’s arms, not for their own griefs, but for 
the miseries which they might bring upon those who 
had trusted them. 

But who shall ever dare to say that tliere is no hope, 
if he will but give his griefs to the w’orld ? That very 
night Mrs. Spurling had received a letter fronr her old 
school-friend, Mrs. Louis Garraweg, with all her fears 
and her hopes poured out in it, and the whole sad story 
of their troubles. Swift from the vicarage went the 
message to the haU, and early next morning Mr. Baffles 
Haw, with a great black carpet-bag in his hand, found 
means to draw the cashier of the local branch of the 
Bank of England from his breakfast, and to persuade 


62 


TEE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


Lim to open Ins doors at unofficial liours. By half-past 
nine the crowd had already begun to collect around Gar- 
raweg’s when a stranger, pale and thin, with a bloated 
carpet-bag, was shown at his own very pressing request 
into the bank parlor. 

“It is no use, sir,” said the elder brother, humbly, as 
they stood together encouraging each other to turn a 
brave face to misfortune. “We can do no more. We 
have little left, and it would be unfair to the others to 
pay you now. We can but hope that when our assets 
are realized no one will be the loser save ourselves.” 

“ I did not come to draw out, but to put in,” said 
Baffles Haw, in his demure apologetic fashion. “I have 
in Tny bag five thousand hundred-i^ound Bank of Eng- 
land notes. If you will have the goodness to place them 
to my credit account, I should be extremely obliged.” 

“But, good heavens, sir,” stammered Bupert Garra- 
weg, “have you not heard? Have you not seen? We 
cannot allow you to do this thing blindfold. Can we, 
Louis?” 

“ Most certainly not. We cannot recommend our 
bank, sir, at the present moment, for there is a run 
upon us, and we do not know to what lengths it may 
go.” 

“Tut ! tut ! ” said Baffles Haw. “If the run continues 
you must send me a wire, and I shall make a small addi- 
tion to my account. You wull send me a receipt b}' post. 
Good-morning, gentlemen ! ” He bowed himself out ere 
the astonished partners could realize what had befallen 
them, or raise their eyes from the huge black bag and 
the visiting card which lay upon their table. There was 
no great failure in Birmingham that day, and the house 
of Garraweg still survives to enjoy the success which it 
deserves. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


63 


Such were the deeds by which Baffles Haw made him- 
self known throughout the Midlands. And yet, in spite 
of all his open-handedness, he was not' a man to be im- 
posed upon. In vain the sturdj’’ beggar cringed at his 
gate, and in vain the crafty letter- writer poured out a 
thousand fabulous woes upon paper. Robert was aston- 
ished, when he brought some tale of trouble to tlie hall, 
to observe how swift was the perception of the recluse, 
and how unerringly he could detect a flaw in a narrative, 
or lay his finger upon the one point which rang false. 
Were a man strong enough to help himself, or of such a 
nature as to profit nothing by help, none would he get 
from the master of the new hall. In vain, for example, 
did old McIntyre throw himself continually across the 
path of the millionaire, and impress upon him, by a 
thousand hints and innuendoes, the hard fortune which 
had been dealt him, and the ease with which his fallen 
greatness might be restored. Raffles Haw listened po- 
litely, bowed, smiled, but never showed the slightest in- 
clination to restore the querulous old gunrnaker to his 
pedestal. 

But if the recluse’s wealth was a lure which drew the 
beggars from far and near as a lamp draws the moths, 
it had the same power of attraction upon another and 
much more dangerous class. Strange hard faces were 
seen in the village street, prowling figures were marked 
at night stealing about among the fir plantations, and 
warning messages arrived from city police and county 
constabulary to say that evil visitors were known to 
have taken train to Tamfield. But if, as Raffles Haw 
held, there were few limits to the power of immense 
wealth, it possessed among other things the power of 
self-preservation as one or two people were to learn to 
their cost. 


64 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


“Would 3"Ou mind stepping up to tlie hall,” he said 
one morning, putting his head in at the door of the 
Elmdene sitting room. “ I have something there that 
might amuse you.” He was on intimate terms with the 
McIntyres now, and there were few days on which they 
did not see something of each other. 

They gladly accompanied him, all three, for such in- 
vitations were usually the prelude of some agreeable 
sarprise which he had in store for them. 

“I have shown you a tiger,” he remarked to Laura, 
as he led them into tlie dining-room. “ I will now show 
you something quite as dangerous, though not nearly so 
pretty.” There was an arrangement of mirrors at one 
end of the room, with a large circular glass at a sharp 
angle at the top. 

“ Look in there — in the upper glass,” said Raffles 
Haw. 

“ Good gracious, what dreadful looking men ! ” cried 
Laura. “ There are two of them, and I don’t know which 
is the worse.” 

“ What on earth are they doing ? ” asked- Robert. 
“They appear to be sitting on the ground in some sort 
of a cellar.” 

“Most dangerous-looking characters,” said the old 
man. “ I should strongly recommend you to send for a 
policeman.” 

“I have done so. But it seems a work of supereroga- 
tion to take them to prison, for they are very snugly in 
prison already. However, I suppose that the law must 
have its own.” 

“ And who are they, and how did they come there ? 
Do tell us, Mr. Haw.” Laura McIntyre had a pretty, be- 
seeching way with her which went rather piquantly with 
her queenly style of beauty. 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES IIAW, 


65 


“ I know no more than you do. They were not there 
last night, and they are here this morning, so I suppose 
it is a safe inference that they came in during the night, 
especially as my servants found the window open when 
they came down. As to their character and intentions, 
I should think that is pretty legible upon their faces. 
They look a pair of beauties, don't they ? ” 

“ But I cannot understand in the least where they 
are,” said Robert, staring into the mirror. “ One of 
them has taken to butting his head against the wall. 
No, he is bending so that the other may stand upon his 
back. He is up there now and the light is shining ui^on 
his face. What a bewildered ruffianly face it is, too. I 
should so like to sketch it. It would be a study for the 
picture I am thinking of, of ‘ The Reign of Terror.’ ” 

“I have caught them in my patent burglar trap,” said 
Haw. “They are my first birds, but I have no doubt 
that they will not be the last. I will show you how it 
works. It is quite a new thing. This flooring is now 
as strong as possible, but every night I disconnect it. 
It is done simultaneously by a central machine for every 
room on the ground floor. When the floor is discon- 
nected one may advance three or four steps, either from 
the window or door, and then that whole part turns 
on a hinge and slides you into a padded strong room 
beneath, where you may kick your heels until you are re- 
leased. There is a central oasis, between the hinges, 
where the furniture is grouped for the night. The floor- 
ing flies into position again when the weight of the 
intruder is removed, and there he must bide, while I 
can always take a peep at him by this simple little opti- 
cal arrangement. I thought it might amuse you to have 
a look at my prisoners before I handed them over to the 
head constable, who I see is now coming up the avenue.” 

5 


66 


TEE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


“The poor burglars ! ” cried Laura. “ It is no won- 
der that they look bewildered, for I suppose, Mr. Haw, 
that they neither know where they are nor how they 
came there. I am so glad to know that you guard 
yourself in this way, for I have often thought that you 
ran a danger.” 

“Have you so?” said he, smiling round at her. “I 
think that my house is fairly burglar-proof. I have one 
window which mgy be used as an entrance, the centre 
one of the three of my laboratoiy. I keep it so because, 
to tell the truth, I am somewhat of a night prowler my- 
self, and when I treat myself to a ramble under the stars 
I like to slip in and out without ceremony. It would 
however be a fortunate rogue who picked the only safe 
entrance out of a hundred, and even then he might find 
pitfalls. Here is the constable, but you must not go, 
for Miss McIntyre has still something to see in my little 
place. If you will step into the billiard-room I will be 
with you in a very few moments.” 


CHAPTEK VIII 


A billionaire’s plans. 

That morning, and many mornings, both before and 
afterward, were spent by Laura at the new hall exam- 
ining the treasures of the museum, playing with the 
thousand costly toys which Baffles Haw had collected, 
or sallying out from the smoking-room in the crystal 
chamber, into the long line of luxurious hot-houses. 
Haw would walk demurely beside her as she flitted from 
one thing to another, like a butterfly among flowers, 
watching her out of the corner of his eyes, and taking 
a quiet pleasure in her delight. The only joy which 
his costly possessions had ever brought him was that 
which came from the entertainment of others. 

By this time his attentions toward Laura McIntyre 
had become so marked that they could hardly be mis- 
taken. He visibly brightened in her presence, and was 
never weary of devising a thousand methods of surpris- 
ing and pleasing her. Every morning, ere the McIntyre 
family were afoot, a great bouquet of strange and beau- 
tiful flowers was brought down by a footman from the 
hall, to brighten their breakfast-table. Her slightest 
wish, however fantastic, was instantly satisfied, if human 
money or ingenuity could do it. When the frost lasted 
a stream was dammed and turned from its course that 
it might flood two meadows, solely in order that she 
might have a place upon which to skate. With the thaw 
there came a groom evei'y afternoon, with a sleek and 


68 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


beautiful mare, in case Miss McIntyre sliould care to 
ride. Everything went to show that sh6 had made a 
conquest of the recluse of the liew’ hall. 

And she, on her side, played her part admirably. 
With female adaptiveness she fell in with his humor and 
looked at the world through his eyes. Her talk was of 
alms-houses and free libraries, of charities and of im- 
provements. He had never a scheme that she could not 
add some detail to which made it more complete and 
more effective. To Haw it seemed that at last he had 
met a mind which was in absolute affinity with his own. 
Here was a helpmate who could not only follow but 
even lead him in the path which he had chos^en. 

Neither Kobert nor his father could fail to see what 
was going forward, but to the latter nothing could pos- 
sibly be more acceptable than a family tie which should 
connect him, however indirectly, wdth a man of vast 
fortune. The glamour of the gold bags had crept over 
llobert also, and froze the remonstrance upon his IqDS. 
It was very pleasant to have the handling of all this 
wealth, even as a mere agent. Why should he do or 
say what might disturb their present happy relations ? 
It was his sister’s business, not his, and as to Hector 
Spurling, he must take his chance, as other men did. 
It w^as obviously best not to move one way or the other 
in the matter. 

But to Kobert himself, his work and his surroundings 
were becoming more and more irksome. His joy in 
his art had become less keen since he had known Baf- 
fles Haw. It seemed so hard to toil and slave to earn 
such a trifling sum when money could really be had for 
the asking. It was true that he had asked for none, but 
large sums were forever passing through his hands for 
those who were needy, and if he were needy himself his 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


69 


friend would surely not grudge it to him. So the Ro- 
man galleys still remained faintly outlined upon the 
great canvas, while Robert’s days were spent either in 
the luxurious library at the hall, or in strolling about 
the country listening to tales of trouble, and returning 
like a tweed-suited ministering angel to carry Raffles 
Haw’s help to the unfortunate. It was not an ambitious 
life, but it was one which was very congenial to his weak 
and easy-going nature. 

Robert had observed that fits of depression had fre- 
quently come upon the millionaire, and it had some- 
times struck him that the enormous sums which he 
spent had possibly made a serious inroad into his capi- 
tal, and that his mind was troubled as to the future. 
His abstracted manner, his clouded brow, and his bent 
head all spoke of a soul that was weighed down with 
care, and it was only in Laura’s presence that he could 
throw off the load of his secret trouble. For five hours 
a day he buried himself in the laboratory and amused 
himself with his hobby, but it was one of his wfflims that 
no one, neither any of his servants, nor even Laura or 
Robert, should ever cross the threshold of that outlying 
building. Day after day he vanished into it, to reap- 
pear hours afterward pale and exhausted, while the 
whirr of machinery and the smoke which streamed 
from his high chimney showed how considerable were 
the operations which he undertook single-handed. 

“ Could I not assist you in any way?” suggested Rob- 
ert, as they sat together after luncheon in the smoking- 
room. “I am convinced that you over-try your strength. 
I should be so glad to help you, and I know a little of 
chemistry.” 

“Do you, indeed?” said Raffles Haw, raising his 
eye brows. “ I had no idea of that. It is so very sel- 


70 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


dom that the artistic and the scientific faculties go to- 
gether.” 

“ I don’t know that I have either particularly devel- 
oped, but I have taken classes, and I worked for two 
years in the laboratory at Sir Josiah Mason’s Institute.” 

“ I am delighted to hear it,” Haw replied, with em- 
phasis. “ That may be of great importance to us. It is 
very possible — indeed almost certain — that I shall avail 
myself of your offer of assistance, and teach you some- 
thing of my chemical methods, which I may say differ 
considerably from those of the orthodox school. The 
time, however, is hardly ripe for that. What is it, 
Jones ? ” ^ 

“ A note, sir.” The butler handed it in upon a silver 
salver. Haw broke the seal and ran his eye over it. 

“Tut! tut I It is from Lady Morsley, asking me to 
the Lord Lieutenant’s ball. I cannot possibly accept. 
It is very kind of them, but I do wish they would leave 
me alone. Very well, Jones. I shall write. Do you 
know, Eobert, I am often very unhapp3\” He fre- 
quently called the young artist by his Christian name, 
especially in his more confidential moments. 

“I have sometimes feared that you were,” said the 
other, sympathetically. “ But how strange it seems, you 
who are yet young, healthy, with every faculty for enjoy- 
ment, and a millionaire.” 

“ Ah, Eobert,” cried Haw, leaning back in his chair, 
and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. “ You 
have put your finger upon my trouble. If I were a mill- 
ionaire I might be happy, but alas I am no million- 
aire.” 

“ Good heavens 1 ” gasped Eobert. Cold seemed to 
shoot to his inmost soul as it flashed upon him that this 
was a prelude to a confession of impending bankruptcy, 


THE D0ING8 OF RAFFLES HAW. 71 

and that all this glorious life, all the excitement and the 
color and change were about to vanish into thin air. 

“No millionaire ! ” he stammered. 

“ No, Robert. I am a billionaire — perhaps the only 
one in the world. That is what is on my mind, and why 
I am unhappy sometimes. I feel that I should spend 
this money — that I should put it in circulation — and yet 
it is so hard to do it without failing to do good — with- 
out doing positive harm. I feel my responsibility deep- 
ly'. It weighs me down. Am I justified in continuing 
to live this quiet life when there are so many millions 
whom I might save and comfort if I could but reach 
them.” 

Robert heaved a long sigh of relief. “Perhaps you 
take too grave a view of your responsibilities,” he said. 

“ Everybody knows that the good which you have done 
is immense. What more could 3^011 desire? If you 
really wish to extend 3"Our benevolence further there 
are organized charities everywhere which would be very 
glad of your help.” 

“ I have the names of two hundred and seventy of . 
them,” Haw answered. “ You must run your eye over 
them some time and see if you can suggest any others. 

I send my annual mite to each of them. I don’t think 
there is much room for expansion in that direction.” 

“AVell, really, you have done 3'our share, and more 
than your share. I would settle down to lead a hapj^y 
life and think no more of the matter.” 

“I could not do that,” Haw answered, earnestly ; “ I 
have not been singled out to wield this immense j^ower 
simply in order that I might lead a happy life. I can 
never believe that. Now, can you not use your imag- 
ination, Robert, and devise methods by which a man 
who has command of~well, let us say for argument’s 


72 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


sake, of boundless wealth, could benefit mankind by it, 
without taking away anyone’s independence or in any 
way doing harm? ” 

‘‘ Well, really, now that I come to think of it, it is a 
very difficult problem,” said Kobert. 

“ Now I will submit a few schemes to you, and you 
may give me your opinion on them. Supposing that 
such a man were to buy ten square miles of ground here 
in Staffordshire, and were to build upon it a neat city 
consisting entirely of clean, comfortable, four-roomed 
houses, furnished in a simple style, with shops and so 
forth, but no public houses. Supposing, too, that he 
was to offer a house free to all the homeless folk, all the 
tramps, and broken men, and out-of- workers in Great 
Britain. Then, having collected them together, let him 
employ them, under fitting superintendence, upon some 
colossal piece of work which would last for many years, 
and perhaps be a permanent value to humanity. Give 
them a good rate of pay and let their hours of labor be 
reasonable, and those of recreation be pleasant. Might 
you not benefit them and benefit humanity at one 
stroke ? ” 

“But what form of work could you devise which 
would employ so vast a. number for so long a time, and 
yet not compete with any existing industry? To do the 
latter would simply mean to shift the misery from one 
class to another.” 

“ Precisely so. I should compete with no one. What 
I thought of doing was of sinking a shaft through the 
earth’s crust and of establishing rapid communication 
with the antipodes. AYhen you had got a certain dis- 
tance down— how far is an interesting mathematical 
problem — the centre of gravity would be beneath you, 
presuming that your boring was not quite directed 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HA W. 73 

toward tlie centre, and you could then lay down rails 
and tunnel as if you were on a level/’ 

Then for the first time it flashed into Robert McIn- 
tyre’s head that his father’s chance words were correct, 
and that he was in the presence of a madman. His 
great wealth had clearly turned his brain and made 
him a monomaniac. He nodded indulgently as when 
one humors a child. 

“It would be very nice,” he said. “I have heard, 
however, that the interior of the earth is molten, and 
your workmen would need to be salamanders.” 

“ The latest scientific data do not bear out the idea 
that the earth is so hot,” answered Raffles Haw. “ It 
is certain that the increased temperature in coal mines 
depends upon the barometric pressure. There are 
gases in the earth which may be ignited, and there are 
combustible materials, as we see in the volcanoes, but 
if we come across anything of the sort in our borings 
we could turn a river or two down the shaft, and get 
the better of it in that fashion.” 

“It would be rather awkward if the other end of 
your shaft came out under the Pacific Ocean,” said Rob- 
ert, choking down his inclination to laugh. 

“ I have had estimates and calculations from the first 
living engineers, French, English, and American. The 
point of exit of the tunnel could be calculated to the 
yard. That portfolio in the corner is full of sections, 
plans, and diagrams. I have agents employed in buying 
up land, and if all goes well we may get to -work in the 
autumn. That is one device which may produce results. 
Another is canal cutting.” 

“ Ah, there you would compete with the railways.” 

“ You don’t quite understand. I intend to cut canals 
through every neck of land where such a convenience 


74 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


would facilitate commerce. Such a scheme, when un- 
accompanied by any^ toll upon vessels, would, I think, be 
a very judicious way of helping the human race.” 

And where, pray, would you cut the canals ? ” asked 
Robert. 

“I have a map of the world here,” Haw answered, 
rising and taking one down from the paper-i’ack. “ You 
see the blue pencil-marks. Those are the points where 
I propose to establish communication. Of course I 
should begin by the obvious duty of finishing the Pan- 
ama business.” 

‘‘ Naturally ! ” The man’s lunacy was becoming more 
and more obvious, and yet there was such precision and 
coolness in his manner that Robert found himself, against 
his own reason, endorsing and speculating over his 
plans. 

“ The Isthmus of Corinth also occurs to me. That, 
however, is a small matter from either a financial or an 
engineering point of view. I propose, however, to make 
a juncture here, through Kiel, between the German 
Ocean and the Baltic. It saves, j^ou will observe, the 
whole journey round the coast of Denmark, and would 
facilitate our trade with Germany and Russia. Another 
very obvious improvement is to join the Forth and 
Clyde, so as to connect Keith with the Irish and Ameri- 
can routes. You see the blue line ” 

“ Quite so.” 

“ And we will have a little cutting here. It will run 
from Uleaborg to Kern, and will connect the White Sea 
with the Gulf of Bothnia. We must not allow our sym- 
pathies to be insular, must we? Our little charities 
should be cosmopolitan. We will try and give the 
good peojAe of Archangel a better outlet for their furs 
and their tallow.” 


THE DOimS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


75 


“But it will freeze.” 

“For six months in the year. Still it will be some- 
thing. Then we must do something for the East. It 
would never do to overlook the East.” 

“It would certainly be an oversight,” said Kobert, 
who was keenly alive to the comical side of the question. 
Raffles Haw, however, in deadly earnest, sat scratching 
away at his map with his blue pencil. 

“Here is a point where we might be of some little 
use. If we cut through from Batoum to the Kura River 
we might tap the trade of the Caspian and open up com- 
munication with all the rivers which run into it. You 
notice that they include a considerable tract of country. 
Then again, I think we might venture upon a little cut- 
ting between Beirut, on the Mediterranean, and the 
upper waters of the Euphrates, which would lead us into 
the Persian Gulf. Those are one or two of the more ob- 
vious canals which might knit the human race into a 
closer whole.” 

“ Your plans are certainly stupendous,” said Robert, 
uncertain whether to laugh or to be awe-struck. “ You 
will cease to be a man, and become one of the great 
forces of nature, altering, moulding, and improving.” 

“ That is precisely the view which I take of myself. 
That is why I feel my responsibility so acutely.” 

“ But surely, if you will do all this you may rest. It 
is a considerable programme.” 

“ Not at all. I am a patriotic Briton, and I should like 
to do something to leave my name in the annals of my 
countiy. I should like, however, to do it after my own 
death, as anything in the shape of publicity and honors 
is very offensive to me. I have therefore put by eight 
hundred million in a place which shall be duly men- 
tioned in my will, which I propose to devote to paying 


76 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


off the National debt. I cannot see that any harm could 
arise from its extinction.” 

Kobert sat staring, struck dumb by the audacity of 
this strange man’s words. 

“ Then there is the heating of the soil. There is room 
for improvement there. You have no doubt read of the 
immense yields which have resulted, in Jersey and else- 
where, from the running of hot-water pipes through the 
soil. The crops are trebled and quadrupled. I would 
propose to try the experiment upon a larger scale. We 
might possibly reserve the Isle of Man to serve as a 
pumping and heating station. The main pipes would 
run to England, Ireland, and Scotland, where they 
would subdivide rapidly until they formed a network 
two feet deep under the whole country. A pijre at dis- 
tances of a 3^ard would suffice for every purpose.” 

“I am afraid,” suggested Robert, “that the water 
which left the Isle of Man warm might lose a little of 
its virtue before it reached Caithness, for example.” 

“ There need not be any difficulty there. Every few 
miles a furnace might be arranged to keep up the tem- 
perature. These are a few of my plans for the future, 
Robert, and I shall want the co-operation of disinterested 
men, like yourself, in all of them. But how brightly 
the sun shines, and how sweet the country-side looks. 
The world is very beautiful, and I should like to leave it 
happier than I found it. Let us walk out together, Rob- 
ert, and you will tell me of any fresh cases where I may 
be of assistance.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


A NEW DEPARTURE. 

Whatever good Mr. Raffles Haw’s wealth did the 
world, there could be no doubt that there Avere cases 
■where it did harm. The very contemplation and thought 
of it had upon many a disturbing and mischievous ef- 
fect. Especially was this the case with the old gun- 
maker. From being merely a querulous and grasping 
man, he had now become bitter, brooding, and danger- 
ous, Week by week, as he saw the tide of wealth flow, 
as it were, through his very house without being able to 
divert the smallest rill to nourish his own fortunes, he 
became more wolfish and more hungry-eyed. He spoke 
less of his own wrongs, but he brooded more, and would 
stand for hours on Tamfield Hill looking down at the 
great palace beneath, as a thirst-stricken man might 
gaze at the desert mirage. 

He had worked and peeped and pried, too, until there 
were points upon which he knew more than either his 
son or his daughter. 

“I suppose that you still don’t know where your 
friend gets his money?” he remarked to Robert one 
morning, as they walked together through the village. 

“ No, father, I do not. I only know that he spends it 
very well.” 

“ Well ! ” snarled the old man. “ Yes, very well ! He 
has helped every tramp and slut and worthless vagabond 
over the country-side, but he will not advance a pound, 


78 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES ^A^¥. 


even on tlie best security, to help a respectable business 
man to fight against misfortune.” 

“ My dear father, I really cannot argue with you about 
it,” said Robert. ‘‘ I have already told you more than 
once what I think Mr. Haw’s object is to help those 
who are destitute. He looks upon us as his equals, an-d. 
would not. presume to j^atronize us, or to act as if we 
could not help ourselves. It would be a humiliation to 
us to take his money.” 

“ Pshaw ! Besides it is only a question of an advance, 
and advances are made every day among business men. 
How can you talk such nonsense, Robert ? ” Early as it 
was, his son could see from his excited, quarrelsome 
manner that the old man had been drinking. The habit 
had grown upon him of late, and it was seldom now that 
he was entirely sober. 

“Mr. Raffles Haw is the best judge,” said Robert, 
coldly. “If he earns the money, he has a right to 
spend it as he likes.” 

“And how does he earn it? You don’t know, Rob- 
ert. You don’t know that you are aiding and abetting 
a felony when you help him to flitter it away. Was 
ever so much money earned in an honest fashion? I 
tell you there never was. I tell you also that lumps of 
gold are no more to that man than chunks of coal to the 
miners over yonder. He could build his house of them 
and think nothing of it.” 

“I know that he is very rich, father. I think, how- 
ever, that he has an extravagant way of talking some- 
times, and that his imagination carries him away. I 
have heard him talk of plans which the richest man 
upon earth could not possibly hope to carry through.” 

“Don’t you make any mistake, my son. Your poor 
old father isn’t quite a fool, though he is only an honest 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


79 


broken merchant.” He looked up sideways at his son 
with a wink and a most unpleasant leer. “ Where 
there’s money, I can smell it. There is money there, 
and heaps of it. It’s my belief that he is the richest 
man in the world, though, how he came to be so, I 
should not like to guarantee. I’m not quite blind yet, 
Robert. Have j'ou seen the weekly wagon ? ” 

“ The weekly wagon ! ” 

“Yes, Robert. You see I can find some news for 
you yeti It is due this morning. Every Saturday 
morning you will see the wagon come in. Why, here 
it is now, as I am a living man, coming round the curve.” 

Robert glanced back and saw a great heavy wagon, 
drawn by two strong horses, lumbering slowly along the 
road which led to the new hall. From the efforts of the 
animals and its slow pace, the contents seemed to be of 
great weight. 

“ Just you wait here,” cried old McIntyre, plucking 
at his son’s sleeve with his thin bony hand. “ Wait 
here and see it pass. Then we will watch what becomes 
of it.” 

They stood by the side of the road until it came abreast 
of them. The wagon was covered with tarpaulin sheet- 
ings in front and at the sides, but behind some glimpse 
could be caught of the contents. They consisted, as far 
as Robert could see, of a number of packets of the same 
shape, each about two feet long and six inches high, ar- 
ranged symmetrically upon the top of each other. Each 
packet was surrounded by a covering of coarse sacking. 

“ What do you think of that ? ” asked old McIntyre, 
triumphantly, as the load creaked past. 

“ Why, father ? What do you make of it ? ” 

‘ ' I have watched it, Robert ; I have watched it every 
Saturday, and I had my chance of looking a little deeper 


80 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


into it. You remember the clay when the elm blew clown 
and the road was blocked until they could saw it in two. 
That was on a Saturdny, and the wagon came to a stand 
until they could clear a way for it. I was there, Kobert, 
and I saw my chance. I strolled behind the wagon, and 
I placed my hands upon one of those packets. They 
look small, do they not ? It would take a strong man to 
lift one. They are heavy, Robert, heavy, and hard with 
the hardness of metal. I tell you, boy, that that wagon 
is loaded with gold.” 

“Gold!” 

“ With solid bars of gold, Robert. But come into the 
plantation, and we shall see what becomes of it.” 

They passed through the lodge gates, behind the 
wagon, and then wandered off among the fir-trees until 
they gained a spot where they could command a view. 
The load had halted, not in front of the house, but at 
the door of the outbuilding with the chimney. A staff 
of stablemen and footmen were in readiness, who pro- 
ceeded to swiftly unload, and to carry the packages 
through the door. It was the first time that Robert 
had ever seen anyone, save the master of the house, en- 
ter the laboratory. No sign was seen of him now, 
however, and in half an hour the contents had all been 
safely stored, and the wagon had driven briskly away. 

“ I cannot understand it, father,” said Robert, thought- 
fully, as they resumed their walk. “ Supposing that your 
supposition is correct, who would send him such quan- 
tities of gold, and where could it come from ? ” 

“Ha, you have to come to the old man after all,” 
chuckled his companion. “ I can see the little game. 
It is clear enough to me. There are two of them in it. 
You understand. The other one gets the gold. Never 
mind how, but we will hope that there is no harm. 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


81 


Let us suppose, for example, that they have found a 
marvellous mine, where you can just shovel it out, like 
clay from that pit. Well then, he sends it on to this 
one, and he has his furnaces and his chemicals, and he 
refines and purifies and makes it fit to sell. That’s my 
explanation of it, Eobert. Eh, has the old man put his 
finger on it ? ” 

“Bat if that were true, father, the gold must go back 
again.” 

“So it does, Eobert, but a little at a time. Ah ha, 
I’ve had my eyes open, you see. Every night it goes 
down in a small cart and is sent on to London by the 
seven -forty. Not in bars this time, but done up in iron- 
bound chests. I’ve seen them, boy, and I’ve had this 
hand upon them.” 

“ Well,” said the young man, thoughtfully, “ may be 
you are right. It is possible that you are.” 

While father and son were prying into his secrets, 
Eaffles Haw had found his way to Elmdene, where Laura 
sat reading The Queen by the fire. 

“ I am so sorry,” she said, throwing down her paper 
and springing to her feet. “ They are all out except 
me. But I am sure that they won’t be long. I expect 
Eobert every moment.” 

“I would rather speak to you alone,” answered Eaffles 
Haw, quietly. “ Pray sit down, for I wanted to have a 
little chat with you.” 

Laura resumed her seat with a flush upon her cheeks 
and a quickening of her breath. She turned her face 
away and gazed into the fire, but there was a sparkle in 
her eyes which was not caught 'from the leaping flames. 

“ Do you remember the first time that we met. Miss 
McIntyre ? ” he asked, standing on the rug, and looking 
6 


82 


THE HOIJSTGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


down at her dark hair and the beautifully feminine curve 
of her ivory neck. 

“ As if it were yesterday,” she answered, in her sweet, 
mellow tones. 

“ Then you must also remember the wild words that I 
said -when we parted. It was very foolish of me. I am 
sure that I am most sorry if I frightened or disturbed 
you, but I have been a very solitary man for a long time, 
and I have dropped into a bad habit of thinking aloud. 
Your voice, your face, j'our manner were all so like my 
ideal of a true woman, loving, faithful, and sympathetic, 
that I could not help wondering whether if I were a 
poor man I might ever hoj^e to win the affection of such 
a one.” 

“ Your good opinion, Mr. Baffles Haw, is very dear to 
me,” said Laura. “ I assure you that I was not fright- 
ened, and that there is no need to apologize for what 
was really a compliment.” 

“ Since then I have found,” he continued, ‘‘ that all 
that I had read upon your face was true ; that your 
mind is indeed that of the true woman, full of the noblest 
and sweetest qualities which human nature can aspire 
to. You know that I am a man of fortune, but I wish 
you to dismiss that consideration from your mind. Do 
you think, from what you know of my character, that 
you could be happy as my wife, Laura ? ” 

She made no answer, but still sat with her head 
turned away, and her sparkling eyes fixed upon the 
fire. One little foot from under her skirt tapped ner- 
vously upon the rug. 

“It is only right that you should know a little more 
about me before you decide. There is, however, little 
to know. I am an orphan, and, as far as I know, "with- 
out a relation upon earth. My father was a respectable 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


83 


mfin, a country surgeon in Wales, and he brought me up 
to his own profession. Before I had passed my exam- 
inations, however, he died and left me a small annuity. 
I had conceived a great liking for the subjects of chem- 
istry and of electricity, and instead of going on with my 
medical work, I devoted myself entirely to these studies, 
and eventually built myself a laboratory where I could 
follow out my own researches. At about this time I 
came into a very large sum of money, so large as to make 
me feel that a vast responsibility rested upon me in the 
use which I made of it. After some- thought I deter- 
mined to build a large house in a quiet part of the coun- 
try, not too far from a great centre. There I would be 
in touch with the world, and yet would have quiet and 
leisure to mature the schemes which were in my head. 
As it chanced, I chose Tamfield as my site. All that 
remains now is to carry out the plans which I have 
made, and to endeavor to lighten the earth of some 
of the misery and injustice which weigh it down. I 
again ask you, Laura, will you throw in your lot with 
mine, and help me in the life’s work which lies before 
me ? ” 

Laura looked up at him, at his stringy figure, his pale 
face, his keen and yet gentle eyes. Somehow, as she 
looked there seemed to form itself- beside him some 
shadow of Hector Spurling, the manly features, the 
clear, firm mouth, the frank ej^es. Now, in the very mo- 
ment of her triumph it sprang clearly up in her mind 
how at the hour of their ruin he had stood firmly by 
them, and had loved the penniless girl as tenderly as 
the heiress to fortune. That last embrace at the door, 
too, came back to her, and she felt his lips warm upon 
her own. 

“ I am very much honored, Mr. Haw,” she stammered. 


84 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


“ But this is so sudden. I have had no time to think. 
I do not know what to say.” 

“Do not let me huny 3"ou,” he cried, earnestly. “I 
Leg that you will-think well over it. I shall come again 
for my answer. When shall I come ? To-night ? ” 

“Yes. Come to-night.” 

‘‘Then adieu. Believe me, that I think more highly 
of you for your hesitation. I shall live in hope.” He 
raised her hand to his lips, and left her to her own 
thoughts. 

And what those thoughts were did not long remain 
in doubt. Dimmer and dimmer grew the vision of the 
distant sailor face, clearer and clearer the image of the 
vast palace, of the queenly power, of the diamonds, the 
gold, the ambitious future. It all lay at her feet wait- 
ing to be picked up. How could she have hesitated 
even for a moment ? She rose, and walking over to her 
desk, she took out a sheet of paper and an envelope. 
The letter she addressed to “ Lieutenant Spurling, H. 
M. S. Active, Gibraltar.” The note cost some little 
trouble, but at last she got it worded to her mind. 

“Dear Hector,” she said, “I am convinced that v^our 
father has never entirel}^ approved of our engagement, 
otherwise he would not have thrown obstacles in the 
way of our marriage. I am sure, too, that since -my 
poor father’s misfortunes it is only your own sense of 
honor and feeling of duty which has kept you true to 
me, and that you would have done infinitely better had 
you never seen me. I cannot bear. Hector, to allow 3^ou 
to imperil your future for m3" sake, and I have deter- 
mined, after thinking well over the matter, to release 
you from our bo}" and girl engagement, so that you may 
be entirely free in every way. It is possible that you 
may think it unkind of me to do this now, but I am 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


85 


quite sure, dear Hector, that when you are an admiral 
and a very distinguished man, you will look back at this, 
and you will see that I have been a true friend to you, 
and have prevented you from making a false step earh’’ 
in your career. For myself, whether I marry or not, I 
have determined to devote the remainder of my life to 
trying to do good, and to leaving the world happier 
than I found it. Your father is very well, and gave us a 
capital sermon last Sunday. I enclose the banknote 
which you asked me to keep for you. Good-by forever, 
dear Hector, and believe me when I say that, come what 
may, I am ever your true friend, 

“Lauea S. McIntyee.” 

She had hardly sealed up the letter before her father 
and Robert returned. She closed the door behind them, 
and made them a little courtes3% 

“ I await my family’s congratulations,” she said, with 
her head in the air. “ Raffles Haw has been here, and 
he has asked me to be his wife.” 

“ The deuce he did ! ” cried the old man ; “ and you 
said ? ” 

“I am to see him again.” 

‘‘ And you will say ? ” 

“I will accept him.” 

“You were always a good girl, Laura,” said old McIn- 
tyre, standing on his tiptoes to kiss her. 

“But Laura, Laura, how about Hector?” asked Rob- 
ert, in mild remonstrance. 

“ Oh, I have written to him,” his sister answered, care- 
lessly. “ I wish you would, be good enough to post the 
letter.” 


CHAPTEE X. 


THE GREAT SECRET. 

And SO Laura McIntyre became duly engaged to 
Kaffles Haw, and old Mclnhu’e grew even more bungry- 
looking as be felt bimself a step nearer to tbe source of 
wealth ; while Eobert thought less of work than ever, 
and never gave as much as a thought to the great canvas 
which still stood, dust-covered, upon his easel. Haw 
gave Laura an engagement ring of old gold with a great 
blazing diamond bulging out of it. There was little 
talk about the matter, however, for it was Haw’s wish 
that all should be done very quietly. Nearly all his 
evenings were spent at Elmdene, where he and Laura 
would build up the most colossal schemes of philan- 
thropj' for the future. With a map stretched out on 
the table in front of them, these two j'Oung people 
would, as it were, hover over the world, planning, de- 
vlsiiig, and improving. 

“ Bless the girl ! ” said old McIntyre to his son, “ she 
speaks about it as if she were born to millions. Maybe, 
when once she is married, she won’t be so ready to chuck 
her money into every mad scheme that her husband can 
think of.” 

“Laura is greatly changed,” Eobert answered ; “she 
has grown much more serious in her ideas.” 

“ You wait a bit ! ” sniggered hisiather ; “ she is a good 
girl, is Laura, and she knows what she is about. She’s 
not a girl to let her old dad go to the wall, if she can 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


87 


set him right. It’s a pretty state of things,” he added, 
bitterly. “ Here’s my daughter going to marry a man 
who thinks no more of gold than I used to of gun-metal, 
and here’s my son going about with all the money he 
cares to ask for to help every ne’er-do-well in Stafford- 
shire, and here’s their father, who loved them and cared 
for them, and brought them both up, without money 
enough very often to buy a bottle of brandy. I don’t 
know what your poor dear mother would have thought 
of it.” 

“You have only to ask for what you want.” 

“Yes, as if I were a five-year-old child. But I tell 
3'ou, llobert, I’ll have my rights, and if I can’t get them 
one way I will another. I won’t be treated as if I were 
no one. And there’s one thing. If I am to be this 
man’s pa-in-law. I’ll want to know somethiug about him 
and his money first. We may be poor, but we are hon- 
est. I’ll uj) to the hall now, and have it out with him.” 
He seized his hat and stick and made for the door. 

“No, no, father,” cried Kobert, catching him b}' the 
sleeve. “ You had better leave the matter alone. Mr. 
Haw is a very sensitive man. He would not like to be 
examined upon such a point. It might lead to a serious 
quarrel. I beg that you will not go. ” 

“I am not to be put off forever,” snarled the old man, 
who had been drinking heavily. “I’ll put my foot dowm 
now, once and forever.” He tugged at his sleeve to free 
himself from his son’s grasp. 

“At least you shall not go without Laura knowing. 
I will call her down, and we shall have her opinion.” 

“ Oh, I don’t want to have any scenes,” said McIntyre, 
sulkily, relaxing his efforts. He lived in dread of his 
daughter, and at his worst moments the mention of her 
name would serve to restrain him. 


88 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


Besides,” said Robert, “ I have not the slightest 
doubt that Raffles Haw will see the necessity for giving 
us some sort of explanation before matters go further. 
He must understand that we have some claim now to 
be taken into his confidence.” 

He had hardly spoken when there was a tap at the 
door, and the man of whom they were speaking "walked 
in. 

“Good-morning, Mr. McIntyre,” said he; “Robert, 
would you mind stepping up to the hall with me. I 
W'ant to have a little business chat ” He looked serious, 
like a man who is carrying out something which he has 
well weighed. 

They walked up together with hardly a word on either 
side. Raffles Haw was absorbed in his own thoughts. 
Robert felt expectant and nervous, for he knew that 
something of importance lay before him. The winter 
was almost past now, and the first young shoots were 
beginning to peep out timidly in the face of the wind 
and the rain of an English March. The snows were 
gone, but the country-side looked bleaker and drearier, 
all shrouded in the haze from the damp sodden ^mead- 
ows. 

“By the way, Robert,” said Raffles Haw, suddenly, as 
they walked up the avenue. “ Has your great Roman 
picture gone to London ? ” 

“I have not finished it yet.” 

“ But I know that 3"ou are a quick worker. You must 
be nearly at the end of it.” 

“No, I am afraid that it has not advanced much since 
you saw it. For one thing, the light has not been very 
good.” 

Raffles Haw said nothing, but a pained expression 
flashed over his face. When they reached the house he 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


89 


led tlie way through the museum. Two great metal 
cases were lying on the floor. 

“I have a small addition there to the gem collection,” 
he remarked as he passed. “ They only arrived last 
night, and I have not opened them yet, but I am given 
to understand from the letters and invoices that there 
are some fine specimens. We might arrange them this 
afternoon, if you care to assist me. Let us go into the 
smoking-room now.” 

He threw himself down into a settee and motioned 
Robert into the arm-chair in front of him'. 

‘‘Light a cigar,” he said. “Press the spring if there 
is any refreshment which you would like. Now, my 
dear Robert, confess to me in the first place that you 
have often thought me mad.” 

The charge was so direct and so true that the young 
artist hesitated, hardly knowing how to answer. 

“ My dear boy, I do not blame you. It was the most 
natural thing in the world. I should have looked upon 
anyone as a madman who had talked to me as I have 
talked to you. But for all that, Robert, you w’ere wrong, 
and I have never yet in our conversations proposed any 
scheme which it was not well within my power to carry 
out. I tell you in all sober earnest that the amount of 
my income is limited only by my desire, and that all 
the bankers and financiers combined could not furnish 
the sums which I can put forward without an effort.” 

“I have had ample proof of your immense wealth,” 
said Robert. 

“And you are very naturally curious as to how that 
wealth was obtained. Well, I can tell you one thing. 
The money is perfectly clean. I have robbed no one, 
cheated no one, sweated no one, ground no one down 
in the gaining of it. I can read your father’s eye, Rob- 


90 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


ert. I can see that Le has done me an injustice in this 
matter. Well, perhaps he is not to be bJamed. Per- 
haps I also might think uncharitable things if I were in 
his place. But that is why I now give an explanation 
to you, Bobert, and not to him. You at least have 
trusted me, and you have a right, before I become one 
of your family, to know all that I can tell you. Laura 
also has trusted me, but I know well that she is content 
still to trust me.’* 

“ I would not intrude upon your secrets, Mr. Haw,” 
said Bobert, “ but of course I cannot deny that I should 
be very proud and pleased if you cared to confide them 
to me.” 

And I will. Not all. I do not think that I shall 
ever, while I live, tell all. But I shall leave directions 
behind me, so that if I die you may be able to carry 
on my unfinished work. I shall tell you where those 
directions are to be found. In the meantime you must 
be content to learn the effects which I produce without 
knowing. every detail as to the means.” 

Bobert settled himself down in his chair and concen- 
trated his attention upon his companion’s words, while 
Haw bent forward his eager, earnest face like a man who 
knows the value of the words which he is saying. 

“You are already aware,” he remarked, “that I have 
devoted a great deal of energy and of time to the study 
of chemistry.” 

“ So you told me.” 

“ I commenced my studies under a famous English 
chemist, I continued them under the best man in France, 
and I completed them in the most celebrated laboratory 
of Germany. I was not rich, but my father had left me 
enough to keep me comfortabl}', and by living economi- 
cally I had a sum at my command which enabled me to 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


91 


carry out my studies in a very complete way. When I 
returned to England I built myself a laboratory in a 
quiet country place, where I could work without dis- 
traction or interruption. There I began a series of in- 
vestigations which soon took me into regions of science 
to which none of the three famous men who taught me 
had ever penetrated. 

“ You say, Eobert, that you have some slight knowl- 
edge of chemistry, and you will find it easier to follow 
what I say. Chemistry is, to a large extent, an empiri- 
cal science, and the chance experiment may lead to 
greater results than could, with our present data, be 
derived from the closest study or the keenest reason- 
ing. The most important chemical discoveries, from 
the first manufacture of glass to the wdiitening and re- 
fining of sugar, have all been due to some happy chance 
which might have befallen a mere dabbler as easily as 
a deep student. 

“Well, it was to such a chance that my own great dis- 
covery — perhaps the greatest that the world has seen — 
was due, though I may claim the credit of having orig- 
inated the line of thought which led up to it. I had* 
frequently speculated as to the effect which pow'erful 
currents of electricity exercise upon any substance 
through which they are poured for a considerable time. 
I do not here mean such feeble currents as are passed 
along a telegraph wire, but I mean the very highest pos- 
sible developments. Well, I tried a series of experi- 
ments upon this point. I found that in liquids and in 
compounds the force had a disintegrating effect. The 
well-known experiment of the electrolysis of water will 
of course occur to you. But I found that in the case of 
elemental solids the effect was a remarkable one. The 
element slowly decreased in weight, without perceptibly 


92 


TEE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


altering in composition. I liope tliat I make myself clear . 
to you.” 

“I follow you entirely,” said Kobert, deeply inter- 
ested in his companion’s narrative. 

“ I tried upon several elements, and always with the 
same result. In every case an hour’s current would pro- 
duce a perceptible loss of weight. My theory at that 
stage was that there was a loosening of the molecules 
caused by the electric fluid, and that a certain number 
of these molecules were shed off like an impalpable dust 
all round the lump of earth or of metal, which remained 
of course the lighter by their loss. I had entirely ac- 
cepted this theory 'when a very remarkable chance led 
me to completely alter my opinions. 

“I had, one Saturday night, fastened a bar of bismuth 
in a clamp, and had attached it on either side to an 
electric wire in order to observe what effect the current 
would have upon it. I had been testing each metal in 
turn, exposing them to the influence for from one to 
two hours. I had just got everything in position and 
had completed my connection, when I received a tele- 
gram to say that John Stillingfleet, an old chemist in 
London with whom I had been on terms of intimacy, 
was dangerously ill, and had expressed a wish to see 
me. The last train was due to leave in twenty minutes, 
and I lived a good mile from the station. I thrust a 
few things into a bag, locked my laboratory, and ran as 
hard as I could to catch it. 

“ It was not until I was in London that it suddenly 
occurred to me that I had neglected to shut off the cur- 
rent, and that it would continue to pass through the bar 
of bismuth until the batteries were exhausted. The fact 
however seemed to be of small importance, and I dis- 
missed it from my mind. I was detained in London 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


93 


until the Tuesday niglit, and it was Wednesday morning 
before I got back to my work. As I unlocked the lab- 
oratory door my mind reverted to the uncompleted ex- 
periment, and it struck me that in all probability my 
piece of bismuth would have been entirely disintegrated 
and reduced to its primitive molecules. I was utterly 
unprepared for the truth. 

“ When I approached the table I found, sure enough, 
that the bar of metal had vanished, and that the clamp 
was empty. Having noted the fact I was about to turn 
away to something else, when my attention was attracted 
to the fact that the table upon which the clamp stood 
%vas all starred over with little patches of some liquid 
silvery matter which lay in single drops or coalesced 
into little pools. I had a very distinct recollection of 
having thoroughly cleared the table before beginning 
my experiment, so that this substance had been depos- 
ited there since I had left for London. Much interested, 
I very carefully collected it all into one vessel and ex- 
amined it minutely. There could be no question as to 
what it was. It was the purest mercury, and gave no 
response to any test for bismuth. 

“ I at once grasped the fact that chance had placed in 
my hands a chemical discovery of the very first impor- 
tance. If bismuth were, under certain conditions, to be 
subjected to the action of electricity, it would begin by 
losing weight, and would finally be transformed into 
mercury. I had broken down the partition which sepa- 
rated two elements. 

“But the process would be a constant one. It w'ould 
presumably prove to be a general law, and not an iso- 
lated fact. If bismuth turned into mercury, what would 
mercury turn into? There would be no rest for me 
until I had solved the question. I renewed the ex- 


94: 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


liaiisted batteries and passed the current tbrougli the 
bowl of quicksilver. For sixteen hours I sat watching 
the metal, marking how it slowly seemed to curdle, to 
grow firTner, to lose its silveiy glitter, and to take a 
dull yellow hue. When I at last picked it up in a for- 
ceps and threw it upon the table, it had lost every char- 
acteristic of mercury, and had obviously become another 
metal. A few simple tests were enough to show me that 
this other metal w'as platinum. 

“Now, to a chemist there was something very suggest- 
ive in the order in which these changes had been effect- 
ed. Perhaps j^ou can see the relation, Robert, which 
they bear to each other ? ” 

“ No, I cannot say that I do.” Robert had sat listen- 
ing to this strange statement with parted lips and star- 
ing eyes. 

“I will show you. Bismuth is the heaviest of the 
metals. Its atomic weight is 210. Tbe next in weight 
is lead, 207, and then comes mercury, at 200. Possibly 
the long period during which the current had acted in 
my absence had reduced the bismuth to lead, and the 
lead in turn to mercury. Now% platinum stands at 
197.5, and it was accordingly the next metal to be 
produced by the continued current. Do you see, 
now ? ” 

“It is quite clear.” 

“ And then there came the inference, which sent my 
heart into my mouth and caused my head to swum round. 
Gold is the next in the series. Its atomic weight is 197. 
I remembered now, and for the first time understood, 
why it was that it w^as always lead and mercury wdiich 
'were mentioned by the old alchemists as being the two 
metals wdiich might be used in their calling. With fin- 
gers which trembled with excitement I adjusted the 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


95 


wires again, and in little more tlian an hour — for the 
length of the process was always in proportion to the 
dijBference in the metals — I had before me a knob of 
ruddy crinkled metal which answered to every reaction 
for gold. 

“ Well, Kobert, this is a long story, but I think that 
you will agree with me that its importance justifies me in 
going into detail. When I had satisfied myself that I 
had really manufactured gold, I cut the nugget in two. 
One-half I sent to a jeweller and worker in precious 
metals with whom I had some slight acquaintance, 
asking him to report upon the quality of the metal. 
With the other half I continued my series of experi- 
ments, and reduced it in successive stages through all 
the long series of metals, through silver and zinc and 
manganese, until I had brought it to lithium, which is 
the lightest of all.” 

“ And what did it turn to then ? ” asked Kobert. 

“ Then came what to chemists is likely to be the most 
interesting portion of my discovery. It turned to a 
grayish fine powder, which powder gave no further re- 
sults however much I might treat it with electricity. 
And that powder is the base of all things, it is the 
mother of all the elements, it is in short the substance 
whose existence has been recently surmised by a lead- 
ing chemist, and which has been christened prot^de by 
him. I am the discoverer of the great law of the elec- 
trical transposition of the metals, and I am the first 
to demonstrate protyle ; so that,, I think, Robert, that 
if ^ my schemes in other directions come to noth- 
ing, my name is at least likely to live in the chemical 
world. 

“ There is not very much more for me to tell you. I 
had my nugget back from my friend the jeweller, con- 


96 


TEE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


firming my opinion as to its nature and its quality. I 
soon found several methods by which the process might 
be simplified, and especially a modification of the ordi- 
nary electric current, which w^as very much more effect- 
ive. Having made a certain amount of gold, I disposed 
of it for a sum wdiich enabled me to buy improved ma- 
terials and stronger batteries. In this way I enlarged 
my oi^erations, until at last I was in a position to build 
this house and to have a laboratory where I could carry 
out my w'ork on a much larger scale. As I said before, 
I can now state with all truth that the amount of my in- 
come is only limited by my desires.” 

“ It is wonderful ! ” gasped Kobert. “ It is like a fairy 
tale. But with this great discovery in your mind, you 
must have been sorely tempted to confide it to others.” 

“ I thought well over it. I gave it every considera- 
tion. It was obvious to me that if my invention were 
made public, its immediate result would be to deprive 
the present precious metals of all their special value. 
Some other substance, amber, we will say, or ivoiy, 
would be chosen as a medium for barter, and gold would 
be inferior in value to brass, as being heavier and yet 
not so hard. No one would be the better for such a 
consummation as that. Now, if I retained my secret, 
and used it with wisdom, I might make myself the great- 
est benefactor to mankind that has ever lived. Those 
were the chief reasons, and I trust that they are not dis- 
honorable ones, which led me to form the resolution 
which I have to-day for the first time broken.” 

“But your secret is safe with me,” cried Bobert. 
“ My lips shall be scaled until I have your permission 
to speak.” 

“If I had not known that I could trust you, I should 
have withheld it from your knowledge. And now, my 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW 


97 


clear Robert, theory is very weary work, and practice is 
infinitely more interesting. I have given you more than 
enough of the first. If you will be good enough to ac- 
company me to the laboratory, I shall give you a little 
of the latter.” 


CHAPTEE XI. 


A CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION. 

Eaffles Haw led the way through the front door, and 
crossing over the gravelled drive, pushed, open the outer 
door of the laboratory — the same through which the 
McIntyres had seen the packages conveyed from the 
wagon. On passing through it Eobert found that they 
were not really within the building, but merely in a 
large bare antechamber, around the walls of which were 
stacked the very objects which had aroused his curi- 
osity and his father’s speculations. All mystery had 
gone from them now, however, for while some were 
still wrapped in their sackcloth coverings, others had 
been undone and revealed themselves as great pigs of 
lead. 

“There is my raw material,” said Eaffles Haw, care- 
lessly, nodding at the heap. “ Every Saturday I have a 
wagon load sent up, which serves me for a week, but we 
shall need to work double-tides when Laura and I are 
married, and we get our great schemes under weigh. I 
have to be very careful about the qualit}^ of the lead, for 
of course every impurity is reproduced in the gold.” 

A heavy iron door led into the inner chamber. Haw 
unlocked it, but only to disclose a second one about 
five feet further on. 

“ This flooring is all disconnected at night,” he re- 
marked ; “ I have no doubt that there is a good deal of 
gossip in the servants’ hall about this sealed chamber, 


TUE DOimS OF BAFFLES UAW. 


99 


so I have to guard myself against some inquisitive ostler 
or too adventurous butler.” 

The inner door admitted them into the laboratory, a 
high, bare, whitewashed room, with a glass roof. At 
one end w’as the furnace and boiler, the iron mouth of 
which was closed, though the fierce red light beat 
through the cracks and a dull roar sounded through the 
building. On either side innumerable huge Leyden-jars 
stood ranged in rows, tier topping tier, while above 
them were columns of voltaic cells. Kobert’s eyes, as 
he glanced around, lit on vast wheels, complicated net- 
works of wire, stands, test-tubes, colored bottles, graduat- 
ed glasses, Bunsen burners, porcelain insulators, and all 
the varied debris of a chemical and electrical work-shop. 

“Come across here,” said Baffles Haw, picking his 
way among the heaps of metal, the coke, the packing- 
cases, and the carboys of acid. “ Yours is the first foot 
except my own which has ever penetrated to this room 
since the workmen left it. My servants carry the lead 
into the anteroom, but come no further. The furnace 
can be cleaned and stoked from without. I employ a 
fellow to do nothing else. Now take a look in here.” 

He threw open a door on the further side, and mo- 
tioned to the young artist to enter. The latter stood 
silent with one foot over the threshold, staring in amaze- 
ment around him. The room, which may have been 
some thirty feet square, was paved anyl walled with gold. 
Great brick-shaped ingots, closely packed, covered the 
whole floor, while on every side they were reared up in 
compact barriers to the very ceiling. The single electric 
lamp which lighted the windowless chamber struck a 
dull, murky, yellow light from the vast piles of i3recious 
metal, and gleamed ruddily upon the golden floor. 

“This is my treasure-house,” remarked the owner. 


100 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


“You see that I have rather an accumulation just now. 
My imports have been exceeding my exports. You can 
understand that I have other and more important duties, 
even than the making of gold, just now. This is where 
I store my output until I am ready to send it off. Every 
night almost I am in the habit of sending a case of it to 
London. I employ seventeen brokers in its sale. Each 
thinks that he is the only one, and each is dying to 
know where I can get such large quantities of virgin 
gold. They say that it is the purest which comes into 
the market. The popular theory is, I believe, that I am 
a middleman acting on behalf of some new South Afri- 
can mine which wishes to keep its whereabouts a secret. 
What value would you put upon the gold in this cham- 
ber? It ought to be worth something, for it represents 
nearly a week’s work.” 

“ Something fabulous, I have no doubt,” said Kobert, 
glancing round at the yellow barriers. “ Shall I say a 
hundred and fifty thousand pounds ? ” 

“ Ob, dear me, it is surely worth very much more 
than that,” cried Baffles Haw, laughing; “let me see. 
Suppose that we put it at three-ten an ounce, which is 
nearly ten shillings under the mark. That makes, rough- 
ly, fifty-six pounds for a pound in weight. Now, each 
of these ingots weighs thirty-six pounds, which brings 
theii- value to two thousand and a few odd pounds. 
There are five hundred ingots on each of these three 
sides of the room, but on the fourth there are only three 
hundred on account of the door ; but there cannot be 
less than two hundred on the floor, which gives us a 
rough total of two thousand ingots. So you see, my 
dear bo3% that any broker who could get the contents of 
this chamber for four million pounds w’ould be doing a 
nice little stroke of business.” 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


101 


And a week’s work ! ” gasped Eobert. “ It makes 
my bead swim.” 

“ You will follow me now when I repeat that none of 
the great schemes which I intend to simultaneously set 
in motion are at all likely to languish for want of funds. 
Now come into the laboratory with me, and see how it 
is done.” 

In the centre of the work-room was an instrument 
like a huge vise, with two large brass-colored plates, 
and a great steel screw for bringing them together. 
Numerous wires "ran into these metal plates, and were 
attached at the other end to the rows of dynamic ma- 
chines. Beneath was a glass stand, which was hollowed 
out in the centre into a succession of troughs. 

“ You will soon understand all about it,” said Baffles 
Haw, throwing off his coat and pulling on a smoke- 
stained and dirty linen jacket. “ We must first stoke 
up a little.” He put his weight on a pair of great bel- 
lows, and an answering roar came from the furnace. 
“ That will do. The more heat the more electric force, 
and the quicker our task. Now for the lead ! Just give 
me a hand in carrying it.” They lifted a dozen of the 
pigs of lead from the floor onto the glass stand, and 
having adjusted the plates on either side, Haw screwed 
up the handle so as to hold them in position. 

“ It used in the early days to be a slow process,” he 
remarked, “ but now that I have immense facilities for 
my work it takes. a very short time. I have now only 
to complete the connection in order to begin.” 

He took hold of a long glass lever which projected 
from among the wires and drew it downward. A sharp 
click was heard, followed by a loud sparkling, crackling 
noise. Great spurts of flame sprang from the two elec- 
trodes, and the mass of lead was surrounded by an aure- 


102 THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


ole of golden sparks which hissed and snapped like pis- 
tol-shots. The air was filled with the peculiar acid smell 
of ozone. 

“ The power there is immense,” said Raffles Haw, 
superintending the process, with his watch upon the 
palm of his hand. “It would reduce an organic sub- 
stance to protjle instantly. It is well to understand the 
mechanism thoroughly, for any mistake might be a grave 
matter for the operator. You are dealing with gigantic 
forces. But, you perceive, that the lead is already be- 
ginning toHurn.” 

Silvery dew-like drops had indeed begun to form upon 
the dull-colored mass, and to drop with a tinkle and 
splash into the glass troughs. Slowly the lead melted 
away, like an icicle in the sun, the electrodes ever closing 
upon it as it contracted, until they came together in the 
centre, and a row of pools of quicksilver had taken the 
place of the solid metal. Two smaller electrodes were 
plunged into the mercury, which gradually curdled and 
solidified, until it had resumed the solid form, with a 
yellowish brassy shimmer. 

“ What lies in the moulds now is platinum,” re- 
marked Raffles Haw. “We must take it from the 
troughs and refix it in the large electrodes — so. Now 
we turn on the current again. You see that it gradually 
takes a darker and richer tint. Now I think it is per- 
fect.” Pie drew up the lever, removed the electrodes, and 
there lay a dozen bricks of ruddy, sparkling gold. 

“ You see, according to our calculation, our morning’s 
work has been worth twenty-four thousand pounds, and 
it has not taken us more than twenty minutes,” remarked 
the alchemist as he picked up the newly-made ingots, 
one after the other, and threw them down among the 
others. 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES UAW. 


103 


“ We will devote one of them to experiment/' said lie, 
leaving the last standing upon the glass insulator. “ To 
the world it would seem an expensive demonstration 
which cost two thousand pounds, but our standard, you 
see, is a different one. Now you will see me run through 
the whole gamut of metallic nature.” 

First of all men after the discoverer, Robert saw the 
gold mass, when the electrodes were again applied to 
-it, change swiftly and successively to barium, to tin, to 
silver, to copper, to iron. He saw the long white elec- 
tric sparks change to crimson with the strontium, to 
purple with the potassium, to yellow with tlie manga- 
nese. Then, finally, after a hundred transformations, 
it disintegrated before his eyes, and lay as a little mound 
of fluffy gray dust upon the glass table. 

“ And this is protyle,” said Haw, passing his fingers 
through it. “The chemist of the future may resolve it 
into further constituents, but to me it is the Ultima 
Thule. 

“And now, Robert,” he continued, after a pause, “I 
have shown jmu enough to enable you to understand 
something of my system. This is the great secret. It 
is the secret which endo'svs the man who knows it with 
such an universal power as no man has ever enjoyed 
since the world was made. This secret it is the dearest 
wish of my heart to use for good, and I swear to you, 
Robert McIntyre, that if I thought it would tend to 
anything but good, I would have done with it forever. 
No, I would neither use it myself nor ’would any other 
man learn it from my lips. I swear it by all that is holy 
and solemn.” His eyes flashed as he spoke, and his 
voice quivered "with emotion. Standing, pale and lanky, 
amid his electrodes and his retorts, there was still some- 
thing majestic about this man, who, amid all his stu- 


104 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW? 


pendous good-fortune, could still keep his moral sense 
un dazzled by the glitter of his gold. Robert’s weak 
nature had never before realized the strength which lay 
in those thin, firm lips and earnest eyes. 

“ Surely in your hands, Mr. Haw, nothing but good 
shall come of it,” he said. 

“I hope not, I pray not — most earnestly do I pray 
not. I have done for you, Robert, what I might not 
have done for my own brother had I one, and I have done 
it because I believe and hope that you are a man who 
would not use this power, should you inherit it, for self- 
ish ends. But even now I have not told you all. There 
is one link which I have withheld from you, and which 
shall be withheld from you while I live. But look at 
this chest, Robert he led him to a great iron-clamped 
chest which stood in the corner, and throwing it open, 
he took from it a small case of carved ivory. 

“Inside this,” he said, “I have left a paper which 
makes clear anything wdiich is still hidden from you. 
Should anything happen to me, you will always be able 
to inherit my powers and to continue my plans, by fol- 
lowing the directions which are there expressed. And 
now,” he continued, throwing his casket back again into 
the box, “ I shall frequently require your help, but I do 
not think that it will be necessary this morning. I have 
already taken up too much of your time. If you are go- 
ing back to Elmdene, I wish that you w'oukl tell Laura 
that I shall be with her in the afternoon.” 


CHAPTER Xn. 


i 

A FAMILY JAE. 

And SO the great secret was out, and Robert walked 
home with his head in a whirl, and the blood tingling in 
his veins. He had -shivered as he came up at the damp 
cold of the wind and the sight of the mist-mottled land- 
scape. That was all gone now. His own thoughts tinged 
everything with sunshine, and he felt inclined to sing 
and dance as he walked down the muddy, deeply-rutted 
country-lane. Wonderful had been the fate allotted to 
Raffles Haw, but surely hardly less important that which 
had come upon himself. He was the sharer of the al- 
chemist’s secret, and the heir to an inheritance which 
combined a wealth greater than that of monarchs, to a 
freedom such as monarchs cannot enjoy. This w^as a 
destiny indeed ! A thousand gold-tinted visions of his 
future life rose up before him, and in fancy he already 
sat high above the human race, with prostrate thousands 
imploring his aid, or thanking him for his benevolence. 

How sordid seemed the untidy garden with its 
scraggy bushes and gaunt elm-trees ! How mean the 
plain buck front with the green wooden porch ! It had 
always offended his artistic sense, but now it was ob- 
trusive in its ugliness. The plain room, too, with the 
American leather chairs, the dull-colored carpet, and the 
patch-work rug, he felt a loathing for it all. The only 
pretty thing in it, upon which his eyes could rest Tvith 
satisfaction, was his sister as she leaned back in her chair 


106 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


by the fire, with her white, clear, beautiful face outlined 
against the dark background. 

“Do you know, Robert,” she said, glancing up at him 
from under her long black lashes, “papa grows unen- 
durable. I have had to speak very plainly to him, and 
to make him understand that I am marrying for my own 
benefit and not for his.” 

“ Where is he, then ? ” 

“I don’t know. At the Three Pigeons, no doubt. 
He sj)ends most of his time there now. He flew off in 
a passion, and talked such nonsense about marriage set- 
tlements and forbidding the banns, and so on. His no- 
tion of a marriage settlement appears to be a settlement 
upon the bride’s father. He should wait quietly, and 
see what can be done for him.” 

“I think, Laura, that we must make a good deal of 
allowance for him,” said Robert, earnestly. “I have no- 
ticed a great change in him lately. I don’t think he is 
himself at all. I must get some medical advice. But 
I have been up at the hall this morning.” 

“Have you? Have you seen Raffles? Did he send 
anything for me ? ” 

“He said that he would come down when he had fin- 
ished his work.” 

“ But what is the matter, Robert ? ” cried Laura, with 
the swift perception of womanhood. “You are flushed, 
and your eyes are shining, and really you look quite 
handsome. Raffles has been telling you something? 
What was it ? Oh, I know, he has been telling you how 
he made his money. Hasn’t he, now ? ” 

“ Well, yes. He took me partly into his confidence. 
I congratulate you, Laura, wdth all my heart, for you 
wdll be a very wealthy woman.” 

“How strange it seems, that he should have come 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES II AW. 


lOT 


to us in our poverty. It is all owing to you, you dear 
old Robert, for if be bad not taken a fancy to you, be 
would never bave come down to Elmdene and taken a 
fancy to someone else.” 

“ Not at all,” Robert answered, sitting down by bis 
sister, and patting ber band affectionately. “It was a 
clear case of love at first sight. He was in love with 
you before be ever knew your name. He asked me 
about you tbe very first time I saw bim.” 

“ But tell me about bis money. Bob,” said bis sister. 
“He lias not told me yet, and I am so curious. How 
did be make it ? It was not from bis father ; be told 
me that himself. His father was just a country doctor. 
How did be do it ? ” 

“I am baund over to secrec}". He wall tell you himself.” 

“ Ob, but only tell me if I guess right. He bad it left 
bim by an uncle — eb ? Well, by a friend? or he took 
out some wonderful patent ? or be discovered a mine ? 
or oil ? Do tell me, Robert ! ” 

“ I mustn’t really,” cried ber brother, laughing. “ And 
I must not talk to you any more. You are much too 
sharp. I feel a responsibility about it. And, besides, I 
must really do some work.” 

“ It is very unkind of you,” said Laura, pouting. 
“ But I must put my things on, for I go into Birming- 
ham by tbe one-twent}^” 

“ To Birmingham ! ” 

“ Yes, I bave a hundred things to order. There is 
everything to be got. You men forget about these de- 
tails. Raffles wishes to bave tbe w^edding in little more 
than a fortnight. Of course it will be very quiet, but 
still one needs something.” 

“ So early as that ! ” said Robert, thoughtfully. “ Well, 
perhaps it is better so ! ” 


108 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


“ Much better, Eobert. Would it not be dreadful if 
Hector came back first and there was a scene. If I were 
once married I should not mind. Why should I ? But 
of course Raffles knows nothing about him, and it W'ould 
be terrible if they came together.” 

“ That must be avoided at any cost.” 

“ Oh, I cannot bear even to think of it. Poor Hector ! 
And yet what could I do ? Robert, you know that it 
was only a boy and girl affair. And how could I refuse 
such an offer as this. It was a duty to my familj^ was 
it not ? ” 

“You were placed in a difficult position — very diffi- 
cult,” her brother answered. “But all will be right, 
and I have no doubt Hector will see it as you do. But 
does Mr. Spurling know of your engagement ? ” 

“ Not a word. He was here yesterday, and talked of 
Hector, but really I did not know how to tell him. We 
are to be married by special license in Birmingham, so 
really there is no reason why he should know. But now 
I must hurry, or I shall miss my train.” 

When his sister was gone Robert went np to his 
studio, and having ground some colors upon his palette 
he stood for some time, brush and marlstick in hand, in 
front of his big bare canvas. But how profitless all his 
work seemed to him now ! What object had he in 
doing it? Was it to earn money? Money could be 
had for the asking, or for that matter, without the ask- 
ing. Or was it to produce a thing of beauty ? But 
he had artistic faults. Raffles Haw had said so, and 
he knew that he was right. After all his pains the 
thing might not please. And with money he could at 
all times buy pictures which would please and which 
would be things of beauty. What, then, was the object 
of his working ? He could see none. He threw down 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


109 


his brush, and lighting his pipe, he strolled downstairs 
once more. 

His father was standing in front of the fire, and in no 
very good humor, as his red face and puckered eyes 
sufficed to show. 

• “ AVell, Eobert,” he began, “I sujDpose that as usual 
you have spent your morning plotting against your 
father?” 

“ What do you mean, father? ” 

“ I mean what I say. What is it but plotting when 
three folk, you and she and this Eaffles Haw, whisper 
and arrange, and have meetings without a word to me 
about it. What do I know of your plans ? ” 

“I cannot tell you secrets which are not my own, 
father.” 

“But I’ll have a voice in the matter, for all that. Se- 
crets or no secrets, you will find that Laura has a father, 
-and that he is not a man to be set aside. I may have had 
my ups and downs in trade, but I have not quite fallen 
so low that I am nothing in my own family. What am 
I to get out of this precious marriage ? ” 

“ What should you get ? Surely Laura’s happiness 
and welfare is enough for you.” 

“ If this man was really fond of Laura, he would show 
proper consideration for Laura’s father. It was only 
yesterday that I asked him for a loan, condescended 
actually to ask for it ; I who have been within an ace of 
being mayor of Birmingham. And he refused me point- 
blank.” 

“ Oh, father ! How could you expose yourself to 
such a humiliation ? ” 

“Eefused me point-blank!” cried the old man, ex- 
citedly. “ It was against his principles, if you jfiease. 
But I’ll be even with him 1 You see if I am not. I 


110 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES II AW. 


know one or two tilings about him. What is it they call 
him at the Three Pigeons ? A smasher, that’s the word 
— a coiner of false money. Why else should he have 
this metal sent him, and that great smoky chimney of 
his going all day ? ” 

“Why can you not leave him alone, father?” expos- 
tulated Robert. “ You seem to think of nothing but his 
money. If he had not a penny he would still be a very 
kind-hearted, pleasant gentleman.” 

Old McIntyre burst into a hoarse laugh. “ I like to 
hear you preach,” said he. “ Without a penny, indeed ! 
Do you think that you would dance attendance upon 
him if he were a poor man ? Do you think that Laura 
w'ould ever have looked twice at him ? You know as well 
as I do that she is marrying him only for his mone3\” 

Robert gave a cry of dismay. There was the alche- 
mist standing in the doorway, pale and silent, looking 
from one to the other of them with his searching e3’es. 

“ I must apologize,” he said, coldly ; “ I did not mean 
to listen to your words. I could not help it. But I have 
heard them. As to you, Mr. McIntyre, I believe that 
you speak from your own bad heart. I will not let my- 
self be moved by your words. In Robert I have a true 
friend. Laura also loves me for my own sake. You can- 
not shake my faith in them. But with you, Mr. IMcIn- 
tyre, I have nothing in common, and it is as well perhaps 
that we should both recognize the fact.” He bowed and 
was gone ere either of the McIntyres could say a word. 

“ You see ! ” said Robert, at last ; “ 3"ou have done now 
what 3"ou cannot undo ! ” 

“I will be even with him!” cried the old man, furi- 
ously, shaking his fist through the window at the dark 
slow-pacing figure. “You just wait, Robert, and see if 
your old dad is a man to be played with.” 


CHAPTER XIIL 


A MIDNIGHT VENTUEE. 

Not a word was said to Laura when she returned as 
to the scene which had occurred in her absence. She 
was in the ga3"est of spirits and prattled merrily about 
her purchases and her arrangements, wondering from 
time to time when Raffles Haw would come.' As night 
fell, however, without any word from him, she became 
uneasy'. 

“ What can be the matter, that he does not come ? ” 
she said. “ It is the first day since our engagement that 
I have not seen him.” 

Robert looked out through the window. “It is a 
gusty night, and raining hard,” he remarked. “ I do 
not at all expect him.” 

“ Poor Hector used to come, rain, snow, or fine. But 
then of course he was a sailor. It was nothing to him. 
I hoj^e that Raffles is not ill.” 

“ He was quite well when I saw him this morning,” 
answered her brother, and they relapsed into silence, 
while the rain pattered against the windows, and the 
wind screamed amid the branches of the elms outside. 

Old McIntyre had sat in the corner most of the da^^, 
biting his nails and glowering into the fire, with a brood- 
ing, malignant expression upon his wrinkled features. 
Contrary to his usual habits, he did not go to the village 
inn, but shuffled off early to bed without a word to his 
children. Laura and Robert remained chatting for 


112 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


some time b}" the fire, she talkiog of the thousand and 
one wonderful things which were to be done when she 
was mistress of the new hall. There w'as less philan- 
throphy in her talk when her future husband was ab- 
sent, and Kobert could not but remark that her car- 
riages, her dresses, her receptions, and her travels in 
distant countries were the topics into which she threw 
all the enthusiasm which he had formerly heard her 
bestow upon refuge homes and labor organizations. 

“I think that grays are the nicest horses,” she said. 
“Bays are nice, too, but grays are more show}". We 
could manage with a brougham and a landau, and per- 
haps a high dog-dart for Baffles. He has the coach- 
house full at present, but he never uses them, and I am 
sure that those fifty horses would all die for w"ant of ex- 
ercise, or get livers like Strasburg geese, if they waited 
for him to ride or drive them.” 

“I suppose that you will still live here,” said her 
brother. 

“ We must have a house in London as well, and run 
up for the season. I don’t of course like to make sug- 
gestions now, but it will be different afterward. I am 
sure that Baffles will do it if I ask him. It is all very 
’well for him to say that he does not w"ant any thanks or 
honors, but I should like to know Avhat is the use of be- 
ing a public benefactor if you are to have no return for 
it. I am sure that if he does only half what he talks 
of doing, they will make him a peer — Lord Tamfield, 
perhaps — and then of course I shall be Lady Tamfield, 
and what would you think of that. Bob? ” She dropped 
him a stately courtesy, and tossed her head in the air, as 
one who was born to wear a coronet. 

“ Father must be pensioned off,” she remarked, pres- 
ently. “ He shall have so much a year on condition that 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


113 


lie keeps away. As to you, Bob, I don’t know wbat 
we shall do with you. We shall make you President of 
the Royal Academy, if money can do it.” 

It was late before they ceased building their air-castles 
and retired to their rooms. But Robert’s brain was ex- 
cited and he could not sleep. The events of the day had 
been enough to shake a stronger man. There had been 
the revelation of the morning, the strange sights which 
he had witnessed in the laboratory, and the immense 
secret which had been confided to his keeping. Then 
there had been the conversation with his father in the 
afternoon, their disagreement, and the sudden intrusion 
of Raffles Haw. Finally, the talk with his sister had 
excited his imagination and driven sleep from his eye- 
lids. In vain he turned and twisted in his bed, or paced 
the floor of his chamber. He was not only awake, but 
abnormally awake, with every nerve highly strung and 
every sense at the keenest. What was he to do to gain 
a little sleep? It flashed across him that there was 
brandy in the decanter downstairs, and that a glass 
might act as a sedative. 

He had opened the door of his room, when suddenly 
his ear caught the sound of slow and stealthy footsteps 
upon the stairs. His own lamp was unlit, but a dim glim- 
mer came from a moving taper, and a long black shadow 
travelled down the wall. He stood motionless, listening 
intently. The steps were in the hall now, and he heard 
a gentle creaking as the key was cautiously turned in the 
door. The next instant there came a gust of cold air, 
the taper was extinguished, and a sharp snap announced 
that the door had been closed from without. 

Robert stood astonished. Wlio could this night- wan- 
derer be ? It must be his father. But what errand 
could take him out at three in the morning. And such 
8 


114 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


a morning, too ! With every blast of the wind the rain 
beat up against his chamber window as though it would 
drive it in. The glass rattled in the frames, and the 
tree outside creaked and groaned as its great branches 
were tossed about by the gale. What could draw any 
man forth upon such a night ? 

Hurriedly Robert struck a match and lit his lamp. 
His father’s room was opposite to his own, and the door 
was ajar. He pushed it open and looked about him. It 
was empty. The bed had not even been laid upon. The 
single chair stood by the window, and there the old man 
must have sat since he left them. There was no book, no 
paper, no means by which he could have amused him- 
self — nothing but a razor-strop lying on the window-sill. 

A feeling of impending misfortune struck cold to Rob- 
ert’s heart. There was some ill meaning in this jour- 
ney of his father’s. He thought of his brooding of j^es- 
terday, his scowling face, his bitter threats. Yes, there 
was some mischief underlying it. But perhaps he might 
even now be in time to prevent it. There was no use 
calling Laura. She could be no help in the matter. He 
hurriedly threw on his clothes, muffled himself in his 
topcoat, and seizing his hat and stick, he set off after 
his father. 

As he came out into the village street the wind whirled 
down it so that he had to put his ear and shoulder 
against it, and push his way forward. It was better, 
however, when he turned into the lane. The high bank 
and the hedge sheltered him upon one side. The road 
however was deep in mud, and the rain fell in a steady 
swish. Not a soul was to be seen, but he needed to 
make no inquiries, for he knew whither his father had 
gone as certainly as though he had seen him. 

The iron side gate of the avenue was half open, and 


THE D0ING8 OF RAFFLES HAW. 


115 


Robert stumbled bis w.ay up the gravelled drive amid 
the dripping fir-trees. Wliat could bis father’s intention 
be wben be readied tbe ball? Was it merely that be 
wished to spy and prowl, or did be intend to call up tbe 
master and enter into some discussion as to bis wrongs? 
Or was it possible that some blacker and more sinister 
design lay beneath bis strange doings ? Robert thought 
suddenly of tbe razor stroj?, and gasped with horror. 
What bad tbe old man been doing with that ? He 
quickened bis pace to a run, and hurried on until be 
found himself at tbe door of tbe ball. 

Thank God, all was quiet there. He stood by tbe 
big silent door and listened intently. There was noth- 
ing to be beard save tbe wind and tbe rain. Where, 
then, could bis father be ? If .be wished to enter tbe 
hall be would not attempt to do so by one of tbe win- 
dows, for bad be not been present wben Raffles Haw 
bad shown them tbe precautions which be bad taken? 
But then a sudden thought struck Robert. There was 
one window which was left unguarded. Haw bad been 
imprudent enough to tell them so. It was tbe middle 
window of tbe laboratory. If be remembered it so 
clearly, of course bis father would remember it too. 
There was tbe point of danger. 

Tbe moment that be bad come round tbe corner of 
tbe building be found that bis surmise bad been cor- 
rect. An electric lamp burned in^be laboratory, and 
tbe silver squares of tbe three large windows stood out 
clear and bright in tbe darkness. Tbe centre one bad 
been thrown open, and even as be gazed Robert saw a 
dark, monkey-like figure spring up onto tbe sill, and 
vanish into tbe room beyond. For a moment only it 
outlined itself against tbe brilliant light, but in that 
moment Robert bad time to see that it was indeed bis 


116 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW, 


father. On tiptoe he crossed the intervening space and 
peeped in through the open window. It was a singular 
spectacle which met his eyes. 

There stood upon the glass table some half-dozen large 
ingots of gold which had been made the night before, 
but which had not been removed to the treasure-house. 
On these the old man had thrown himself as one who 
enters into his rightful inheritance. He lay across the 
table, his arms clasping the bars of gold, his cheek 
pressed against them, crooning and muttering to him- 
self. Under the clear still light, amid the giant wheels 
and strange engines, that one little dark figure clutch- 
ing and clinging to the ingots had in it something both 
weird and piteous. 

For five minutes or more Kobert stood in the dark- 
ness amid the rain, looking in at this strange sight, 
while his father hardly moved save to cuddle closer to 
the gold, and to pat it with his thin hands. Eobert was 
still uncertain what he should do, when his eyes wan- 
dered from the central figure and fell on something else, 
which made him give a little cry of astonishment — a cry 
which was drowned amid the howling of the gale. 

Eafifles Haw was standing in the corner of the room. 
Where lie had come from Eobert could not sa}--, but he 
was certain that he had not been there when he first 
looked in. He stood silent, wrapped in some long dark 
dressing-gown, his arms folded, and a bitter smile upon 
his pale face. Old McIntyre seemed to see him at al- 
most the same moment, for he shrieked out an oath and 
clutched still closer at his treasure, looking slantwise 
at the master of the house with furtive, treacherous ej^es. 

“ And it has really come to this ! ” said Haw, at last, 
taking a step forward ; “ you have actually fallen so 
low, Mr. McIntyre, as to steal into my house at night 


THE DOINGS OF- DAFFIES HAW, 


117 


like a common burglar. Yon knew that tliis window 
was unguarded. I remember telling you as mucli. But 
I did not tell you what other means I had adopted by 
which I might be warned if knaves made an entrance. 
But that you should have come ! You I ” 

The old gunmaker made no attempt to justify him- 
self, but he muttered some few hoarse words and con- 
tinued to cling to the treasure. 

“ I love your daughter,” said Baffles Haw, “ and for 
,ber sake I will not expose you. Your hideous and in- 
famous secret shall be safe with me. No ear shall hear 
what has happened this night. I will not, as I miglit, 
arouse my servants and send for the police. But you 
must leave my house without further words. I have 
nothing more to say to you. Go as you have come.” 

He took a step forward and held out his hand as if to 
detach the old man’s grasp from the golden bars. The 
other thrust his hand into the breast of his coat and, 
with a shrill scream of rage, flung himself upon the al- 
chemist. So sudden and so fierce was the movement 
that Haw had no time for defence. A bony hand 
gripped him by the throat, and the blade of a razor 
flashed in the air. Fortunately, as it fell the weapon 
struck against one of the many wires which spanned the 
room, and flying out of the old man’s grasp, tinkled upon 
the stone floor. But though disarmed, he was still 
dangerous. With a horrible, silent energy he pushed 
Haw back and back until, coming to a bench, they both 
fell over it, McIntyre remaining uppermost. His second 
hand was on the alchemist’s throat, and it might have 
fared ill with him had Bobert not climbed through the 
^ window and dragged his father off from him. With the 
aid of Haw he iflnned the old man down and passed a 
long cravat around his arms. It was terrible to look at 


118 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


him, for his face was convulsed, liis eyes bulging from 
his head, and his lips white with foam. 

Haw leaned against the glass table panting, with his 
hand to his side. 

“ You here, Eobert ! ” he gasped. “Is it not hor- 
rible ? How did you come ? ” 

“ I followed him. I heard him go out.” 

“ He would have robbed me, and he would have mur- 
dered me. But he is mad — stark, staring mad.” 

There could be no doubt of it. Old McIntyre was 
sitting up now and burst suddenty into a hoarse peal of 
. laughter, rocking Iiimself backward and forward, and 
looking up at them with little twinkling cunning eyes. 
It was clear to both of them that his mind, weakened 
by long brooding over the one idea, had now at last 
become that of a monomaniac. His horrid, causeless 
mirth was more terrible even than his fury. 

“ What shall we do with him?” asked Haw. “We 
cannot take him back to Elmdene. It would be a terri- 
ble shock to Laura.” 

“ We could have doctors to certify in the morning. 
Could we not keep him here until then? If we take him 
back someone will meet us, and there will be a scandal.” 

“I know. We will take him to one of the padded 
rooms, where he can neither hurt himself nor anj'one 
else. I am somewhat shaken myself. But I am better 
now. Ho you take one arm and I will take the other.” 
Half leading and half dragging him, they managed be- 
tween them to convey the old gunmaker away from the 
scene of his disaster, and to lodge him for the night in a 
place of safety. At five in the morning Eobert had 
started in the gig to make the medical arrangements, 
• while Eaffies Haw paced his palatial house with a troub- 
led face and a sad heart. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE SPREAD OF THE BLIGHT. 

It may be tliat Laura did not look upon tlie removal 
of her father as an unmixed misfortune. Nothing was 
said to her as to the manner of the old man’s seizure, 
but Robert informed her at breakfast that he had 
thought it best, acting under medical advice, to place 
him for a time under some restraint. She had herself 
frequently remarked upon the grooving eccentricity of 
his manner, so that the announcement could have been 
no great surprise to her. It is certain that it did not 
diminish her appetite for the coffee and the scrambled 
eggs, nor prevent her from chatting a good deal about 
her approaching wedding. 

But it was very different with Raffles Haw. The in- 
cident had shocked him to his ipmost soul. He had 
often feared lest his money do indirect evil, but here 
was crime and madness arising before his very eyes 
from its influence. In vain he tried to choke dowui his 
feelings and to persuade himself that this attack of old 
McIntyre’s was something which came of itself — some- 
thing which had no connection with himself or his 
wealth. He remembered the man as he had first met 
him, garrulous, foolish, but with no obvious vices. He 
recalled the change which, w'eek by w'eek, had come over 
him, his greedy eye, his furtive manner, his hints anel 
innuendoes, ending only the day before in a positive de- 
mand for money. It was too certain that there was a 


120 


THE HOLWGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


cliain of events leading direct to the horrible encounter 
in the laboratory. His money had cast a blight where 
he had hoped to shed a blessing. 

Mr. Spurling, the vicar, was up shortly after break- 
fast, some rumor of evil having come to his ears. It 
was good for Haw to talk with him, for the fresh, breezy 
manner of the old clergyman was a corrective to his own 
sombre and introspective mood. 

“Prut-tut!” said he. “This is very bad — very bad 
indeed ! Mind unhinged, you say, and not likely to get 
over it ? Dear, dear ! I have noticed a change in him 
these last few weeks. He looked like a man who had 
something upon his mind. And how is Mr. Robert Mc- 
Intyre?” 

“He is very well. He was with me this morning 
when his father had this attack.” 

“Ha ! There is a change in that young man. I ob- 
serve an alteration in him. You will forgive me, Mr. 
Ratjles Haw, if I say a few words of advice to you. 
Apart from my spiritual functions I am old enough to 
be your father. You are a very wealth}^ man, and you 
have used your wealth nobly — yes, sir, nobl3\ I do not 
thiiik that there is a man in a thousand who would have 
done as well. But don’t you think sometimes that it 
has a dangerous influence upon those who are around 
you?” 

“ I have sometimes feared so.” 

“We may pass over old Mr. McIntyre. It would 
hardly be just, perhaps, to mention him in this connec- 
tion. But there is Robert ! He used to take such an in- 
terest in his profession. He was so keen about art. If 
you met him the first words he said were usually some 
reference to his plans, or the progress he -was making in 
his latest picture. He was ambitious, pushing, self-re- 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


121 


liant. Now lie does nothing. I know for a fact that it 
is two months since he put brush to canvas. He has 
turned from a student into an idler, and, what is worse, 
I fear into a parasite. You will forgive me for speak- 
ing so plainly.” 

Baffles Haw said nothing, but he threw out his hands 
with a gesture of pain. 

“And then there is something to be said about the 
country folk,” said the vicar. “ Your kindness has been 
perhaps a little indiscriminate there. They don’t' seem 
to be as helpful or as self-reliant as they used. There 
was old Blaxton, whose cow-house roof was blown off the 
other day. He used to be a man who was full of energy 
and resource. Three months ago he w^ould have got a 
ladder and had that roof on again in tw’o days’ w^ork. 
But now he must sit dowm, and wuing his hands, and 
write letters, because he knew that it would come to 
your ears, and that you would make it good. There’s 
old Hilary, too ! Well, of course, he was always poor, 
but at least he did something, and so kejjt himself out 
of mischief. Not a stroke will he do now, but smokes 
and talks scandal from morning to night. And the 
worst of it is, that it not only hurts those who have had 
your help, but it unsettles those who have not. They 
all have an injured, surly feeling, as if other folk were 
getting what they had an equal right to. It has really 
come to such a pitch that I thought it was a duty to 
speak to you about it. Well, it is a new experience to 
me. I have often had to reprove my parishioners for 
not being charitable enough, but it is very strange to 
find one who is too charitable. It is a noble error.” 

“ I thank you very much for letting me know about 
it,” answered Baffles Haw, as he shook the good old 
clergyman's hand. “I shall certainly reconsider my 


122 


TUB DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


conduct in that respect.” He kept a rigid and unmoved 
face until bis visitor had gone, and then, retiring to his 
own little room, he threw himself upon the bed and 
burst out sobbing with his face buried in the pillow. 
Of all men in England this, the richest, was on that day 
the most miserable. How could he use this great power 
which he held? Every blessing which he tried to give 
turned itself into a curse. His intentions were so good, 
and yet his results were so terrible. It was as if he had 
some foul leprosy of the mind which all caught who were 
exposed to his influence. His charit}^ so well meant, so 
carefully bestowed, had yet poisoned the whole country- 
side. And if in small things his results were so evil, how 
could he tell that they would be better in the larger 
iflans which he had formed ? If he could not pay the 
debts of a simple yokul wdthout disturbing the great 
laws of cause and effect which lie at the base of all 
things, what could he hope for when he came to fill the 
treasury of nations, to interfere with the complex condi- 
tions of trade, or to provide for great masses of the 
population? He drew back with horror as he dimly saw 
that vast problems faced him in which he might make 
errors which all his money could not repair. The way 
of Providence was the straight way. Yet he, a half-blind 
creature, must needs push in and strive to alter and cor- 
rect it. Would he be a benefactor? Might he not 
rather prove to be the greatest malefactor that the world 
had seen ? 

But soon a calmer mood came upon him, and he rose 
and bathed his flushed face and fevered brow. After 
all, was there not a field where all were agreed that 
money might be w^ell spent? It was not the way of nat- 
ure, but rather the way of man which he would alter. 
It was not Providence that had ordained that folk should 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


123 


live, half starved and overcrowded, in drear}^ slums. That 
was the result of artificial conditions, and it might well 
be healed by artificial means. Why should not his plans 
be successful, after all, and the world the better for his 
discovery? Then, again, it was not* the truth that he 
cast a blight on those with whom he was brought in con- 
tact. There was Laura. Who knew more of him than 
she did ? and yet how good and sweet and true she was. 
She at least had lost nothing through knowing him. He 
would go down and see her. It would be soothing to 
hear her voice and to turn to her for words of sympathy 
in this hour of darkness. 

The storm had died away, but a soft wind was blowing 
and the smack of the coming spring was in the air. He 
drew in the aromatic scent of the fir-trees as he passed 
down the curving drive. Before him lay the long slop- 
ing country-side, all dotted over with the farm steadings 
and little red cottages, with the morning sun striking 
slantwise upon their gray roofs and glimmering windows. 
His heart yearned over all these people, with their mani- 
fold troubles, their little sordid miseries, their strivings 
and hopings and petty soul-killing cares. How could 
he get at them ? How could he manage to lift the burden 
from them and j^et not hinder them in their life-aim ? 
For more and more could he see that all refinement is 
through sorrow, and that the life which does not refine 
is the life without an aim. 

Laura was alone in the sitting-room at Elmdene, for 
Kobert had gone out to make some final arrangements 
about his father. She sj)rang up as her lover entered, 
and ran forward, with a pretty girlish gesture, to greet 
him. 

“ Oh, Kaflles,” she cried, “ I knew that you would 
come ! Is it not dreadful about jpapa ? ” 


124 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


“You must not fret, dearest,” he answered, gently. 
“ It may not prove to be so very grave after all.” 

“ But it all happened before I was stirring. I knew 
nothing about it until breakfast-time. They must have 
gone up to the hall very early ? ” 

“ Yes, they did come up rather early.” 

“ What is the matter with you. Baffles ? ” cried Laura, 
looking up into his face ; “ you look so sad and weary ! ” 

“I have been a little in the blues. The fact is, Laura, 
that I have had a long talk with Mr. Spurling this morn- 
ing.” 

The girl started and turned white to the lips. A long 
talk with Mr. Spurling ! Did that mean that he had 
learned her secret ? 

“ Well ! ” she gasped. 

“ He tells me that my charity has done more harm 
than good, and, in fact, that I have had an evil influence 
upon everyone whom I have come near. He said it in 
the most delicate way, but that was really what it 
amounted to.” 

“Oh, is that all?” said Laura, with a long sigh of 
relief. “You must not think of minding what Mr. 
Spurling says. Why, it is absurd on the face of it. 
Everybody knows that there are dozens of men all over 
the country who w’ould have been ruined and turned 
out of their houses if you had not stood their friend. 
How could they be the worse for having known you? 1 
wonder that Mr. Spurling can talk such nonsense.” 

“How is Bobert’s picture getting on ?” 

“ Oh, he has a lazy fit on him. He has not touched 
it for ever so long. But why do you ask that? You 
have that furrow on your brow again. Put it away, 
sir ! ” She smoothed it away with her white little hand. 

“ Well, at any rate I don’t think that quite everybody 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


125 


is the worse,” said he, looking down at her. “ There is 
one at least who is bej'ond taint, one who is good and 
pure and true, and who would love me as w^ell if I were 
a poor clerk struggling for a livelihood. You would, 
would you not, Laura ? ” 

“ You foolish boy, of course I should.” 

“ And yet, how strange it is that it should be so — that 
you, who are the only woman whom I have ever loved, 
should be the only one in whom I also have raised an 
affection which is free from greed or interest. I wonder 
whether you may not have been sent by Providence sim- 
ply to restore my confidence in the world. How barren 
a place would it not be if it were not for woman’s love. 
When all seemed black around me this morning, I tell 
you, Laura, that I seemed to turn to j’ou and to your 
love as the one thing on earth upon which I could rely. 
All else seemed shifting, unstable, influenced by this or 
that base consideration. In you, and you only, could I 
trust.” 

“ And I in you, dear Eaffles ! I never knew what love 
was until I met you.” 

She took a step toward him, her hands advanced, love 
shining in her features, when in an instant Eaffles saw 
the color struck from her face and a staring horror 
spring into her eyes. Her blanched and rigid face w^as 
turned toward the open door, while he, standing partly 
behind it, could not see what it w^as that had so moved 
her. 

“ Hector 1 ” she gasped with dry lips. 

A quick step in the hall and a slim, weather-tanned 
young man sprang forward into the room and caught 
her up in his arms as if she had been a feather. “ You 
darling ! ” he said. “ I knew that I would surprise you. 
I came right up from Plymouth by the night train. 


12G 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


And I have long leave and plenty of time to get mar- 
ried. Isn’t it jolly, dear Laura ? ” He pirouetted round 
with her in the exuberance of his delight. As he spun 
round, however, his eyes fell suddenly upon the pale 
and silent stranger who stood by the door. Hector 
blushed furiously, and made an awkward sailor bow, 
standing with Laura’s cold and unresponsive hand still 
clasped in his. 

‘‘Very sorry, sir; didn’t see you,” he said. “You’ll 
excuse my going on in this mad sort of way, but if you 
had served you would know what it is to get away from 
quarter-deck manners and to be free man. Miss Mc- 
Intyre will tell you that we have known each other since 
we were children, and as we are to be married in, I hope, 
a month at the latest, we understand each other pretty 
well.” 

Raffles Haw still stood cold and motionless. He 
was stunned, benumbed, by what he saw and heard. 
Laura drew away from Hector and tried to free her 
hand from his grasp. 

“ Didn’t you get my letter at Gibraltar ? ” she asked. 

“ I never went to Gibraltar. Were ordered home by 
wire from Madeira. Those chaps at the Admiralty never 
know their own minds for two hours together. But 
what matter about a letter, Laura, so long as I can see 
you and speak with you ? You have not introduced me 
to your friend here.” 

“ One word, sir,” cried Raffles Haw, in a quivering 
voice. “Do I entirely understand you? Let me be 
sure that there is no mistake. You say that you are 
engaged to be married to Miss McIntyre ? ” 

“ Of course I am. I’ve just come back from a four 
months’ cruise, and I am going to be married before I 
drag my anchor again.” 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


127 


“Four months!” gasped Haw. “ Wh^^ it is just 
four months since I came here. And one last question, 
sir. Does Robert McIntyre know of your engage- 
ment ? ” 

“ Does Bob know ? Of course he knows. Why, it 
was to his care I left Laura when I started. But what 
is the meaning of all this ? What is the matter with you, 
Laura ? AVhy are you so white and silent ? And — 
hullo, hold up, sir ! The man is fainting ! ” 

“It is all right!” gasped --Haw, steadying himself 
against the edge of the door. He was as white as pa- 
per, and his hand was pressed close to his side, as 
though some sudden pain had sliot through him. For 
a moment he tottered there like a stricken man, and 
then, with a hoarse cry, he turned and fled out through 
the open door. 

“Poor devil!” said Hector, gazing in amazement 
after him. “He seems hard hit anyhow. But what is 
the meaning of all this, Laura ? ” His face had darkened 
and his mouth had set. 

She had not said a word, but had stood, with a face 
like a mask, looking blankly in front of her. Now she 
tore herself away from him, and casting herself down, 
with her face buried in the cushion of the sofa, she burst 
into a passion of sobbing. 

“ It means that you have ruined me,” she cried. 
“ That you have ruined — ruined — ruined me ! Could 
you not leave us alone ! Why must you come at the last 
moment ! A few more days and we were safe. And 
you never had my letter ? ” 

“ And what was in your letter, then ? ” he asked, 
coldly, standing, with his arms folded, looking down at 
her. 

“It was to tell you that I released you. I love Raf- 


128 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


fles Haw and I was to have been his wife. And now it is 
all gone. Oh, Hector, I hate you, and I shall always 
hate you as long as I live, for you have stepped between 
me and the only good-fortune that ever came to me. 
Leave me alone, and I hope that you will never cross our 
threshold again.” 

“Is that your last word, Laura?” 

“The last that I shall ever speak to you.” 

“Then good-by. I shall see Dad, and go straight 
back to Plymouth.” He waited an instant in hopes of 
an answer, and then walked sadly from the room. 


CHAPTER XV. 


THE GEEATER SECRET. 

It was late tliat niglit that a startled knocking came 
at the door of Elmdene. Laura had been in her room 
all day, and Robert was moodily smoking his pipe by 
the fire when this harsh and sudden summons broke in 
upon his thoughts. There in the porch was Jones, the 
stout head butler of the hall, hatless, scared, with the 
rain-drops shining in the lamp-light upon his smooth 
bald head. 

“ If you please, Mr. McIntyre, sir, would it trouble 
you to step up to the hall?” he cried. “We are all 
frightened, sir, about master.” 

Robert caught up his hat and started at a run, the 
frightened butler trotting heavily beside him. It had 
been a day of excitement and disaster. The young 
artist’s heart was heavy within him, and the shadow of 
some crowning trouble seemed to have fallen upon his 
soul. “What is the matter with your master, then?” 
he asked, as he slowed down into a walk. 

“We don’t know, sir, but we can’t get an answer 
when we knock at the laboratory door. Yet he’s there, 
for it’s locked on the inside. It has given us all a scare, 
sir, that and his goin’s on during the day.” 

“ His goings on ? ” 

“ Yes, sir, for he came back this morning, like a man 
demented, a-talkin’ to himself and with his eyes starin’ 
9 


130 


THE DOINGS OF BAFFLES HAW. 


so that it was dreadful to look at the poor dear gentle- 
man. Then he walked about the passages a long time, 
and he wouldn’t so much as look at his luncheon, but 
he went into the museum and gathered all his jewels and 
things and carried them into the laboratory. We don’t 
know what he’s done since then, sir, but his furnace 
has been a-roarin’, and his big chimney spoutin’ smoke 
like a Birmingham factory. When night came we could 
see his figure against the light a-workin’ and a-heavin’ 
like a man possessed. No dinner would he have, but 
work and w'ork and work. Now it’s all quiet, and the 
furnace cold, and no smoke from above, but w^e can’t 
get no answer from him, sir, so we were scared, and 
Miller has gone for the police, and I came away for 
you.” 

They reached the hall as the butler finished his expla- 
nation, and there outside the laboratory door w^ere the 
little knot of footmen and hostlers, wdiile the village 
policeman, who had just arrived, -was holding his bull’s- 
eye to the keyhole and endeavoring to peep through. 

“The key is half turned,” he said. “I can’t see 
nothing except just the light.” 

“Here’s Mr. McIntyre,” cried half a dozen voices, as 
Robert came forward. 

“We’ll have to beat the door in, sir,” said the police- 
man ; “ w^e can’t get any sort of answer, and there’s some- 
thing wrong.” 

Twice and thrice they threw their united weights 
against it, until at last, with a sharp snap, the lock 
broke and they crowded into the narrow passage. 
The inner door was ajar and the laboratory lay before 
them. 

In the centre was an enormous heap of fluffy gray ash, 
reaching up half way to the ceiling. Beside it was 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES EAW, 


131 


another heap, much smaller, of some brilliant scintillat- 
ing dust which shimmered brightly in the rays of the 
electric light. All round was a. bewildering chaos of 
broken jars, shattered bottles, cracked machinery, and 
tangled wires, all bent and draggled. And there, in the 
midst of this universal ruin, leaning back in his chair, 
W’ith his hands clasped upon his lap, and the easy pose 
of one who rests after hard work safely carried through, 
sat Raffles Haw, the master of the house, and the richest 
of mankind, with the pallor of death upon his face. So 
easily he sat and so naturally, with such a serene ex- 
pression upon his features, that it was not until they 
raised him, and touched his cold and rigid limbs, that 
they could realize that he had indeed passed awa3\ 

Reverently and slowly they bore him to his room, for 
he was beloved by all who had served him. Robert 
alone lingered with the policeman in the laboratory. 
Like a man in a dream he wandered about, marvelling 
at the universal destruction. A large broad-headed ham- 
mer lay upon the ground, and with this Haw had appar- 
ently set himself to destroy all his apparatus, having 
first used his electric machines to reduce to protyle all 
the stock of gold which he had accumulated. The 
treasure-room, which had so dazzled Robert, consisted 
now of merely four bare walls, while the gleaming dust 
upon the floor proclaimed the fate of that magnificent 
collection of gems which had alone amounted to a royal 
fortune. Of all the machinery no single piece remained 
intact, and even the glass table was shattered into three 
pieces. Strenuously earnest must have been the work 
which Raffles Haw had done that day. 

And suddenly Robert thought of the secret which Had 
been treasured in the casket within the iron-clamped 
box. It was to tell him the one last essential link which 


132 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


would make his knowledge of the process complete. 
Was it still there? Thrilling all over he opened the 
great chest and drew out the ivory box. It was locked, 
but the key was in it. He turned it and threw open the 
lid. There was a white slip of paper with his own 
name written upon it. With trembling fingers he un- 
folded it. Was he the heir to the riches of El Dor- 
ado, or was he destined to be a poor, struggling artist ? 
The note was dated that very evening, and ran in this 
way ; 

“ My Deab Bobebt : My secret shall never be used 
again. I cannot tell you how I thank heaven that I did 
not entirely confide it to you, for I should have been 
handing over to you an inheritance of misery, both to 
yourself and others. For myself I have hardly had a 
happy moment since I discovered it. This I could have 
borne had I been able to feel that I was doing good ; 
but alas ! the only effect of my attempts has been to 
turn workers into idlers, contented men into greedy 
parasites, and, worst of all, true, pure women into de- 
ceivers and hypocrites. If this is the effect of my inter- 
ference in a small scale, I cannot hope for anything bet- 
ter were I to carry out the plans which we have so often 
discussed. The schemes of my life have all turned to 
nothing. For myself you shall never see me again. I 
shall go back to the student-life from which I emerged. 
There, at least, if I can do little good, I can do no harm. 
It is my wish that such valuables as remain in the hall 
should be sold and the proceeds divided amongst all the 
charities of Birmingham. I shall leave to-night if I am 
well enough, but I have been much troubled all day by a 
stabbing pain in my side. It is as if wealth were as bad 
for health as it is for peace of mind. Good-by, Bobert, 


THE DOimS OF RAFFLES HAW, 133 

and may you never Lave as sad a heart as I have to- 
night. 

“ Yours very truly, 

“Eaitles Haw.” 

Was it suicide, sir ? — was it suicide ? ” broke in the 
policeman, as Robert put the note in his pocket. 

No,” he answered ; “ I think it was a broken heart.” 

And so the wonders of the new hall were all disman- 
tled — the carvings and the gold, the books and the 
pictures — and many a struggling man or woman who 
had heard nothing of Raffles Haw during his hfe had 
cause to bless him after his death. Tiie house has 
been bought by a company who have turned it into a 
hydropathic establishment, and of all the folk who fre- 
quent it in search of health or of pleasure, there are 
few who know the strange story which is connected 
with it. 

The blight which Haw’s wealth cast around it seemed 
to last even after his death. Old McIntyre still raves 
in the county asylum, and treasures up old scraps of 
wood and metal under the impression that they are all 
ingots of gold. Robert McIntyre is a moody and irrita- 
ble man, forever pursuing a quest which will always 
evade him. His art is forgotten, and he spends his 
whole small income upon chemical and electrical appli- 
ances, with which he vainly seeks to rediscover that 
one hidden link. His sister keeps house for him — a 
silent and brooding woman, still queenly and beautiful, 
but of a bitter, dissatisfied mind. Of late, however, she 
has devoted herself to charity, and has been of so much 
help to Mr. Spurling’s new curate that it is thought 
he may be tempted to secure her assistance forever. 


134 


THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW. 


So runs fbe gossip of tbe village, and in small places 
such gossip is seldom wrong. As for Hector Spurling, 
he is still in Her Majesty’s service, and seems inclined 
to abide by his father’s wise advice, that he should not 
think of manning until he is a commander. It is possi- 
ble that of all who were brought within the spell of Eahles 
Haw he was the only one who had occasion to bless it. 


THE END. 



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